overheard

*reading report from regular ed teacher while going over daily report with student*

me: "Smiley, smiley, smiley . . . whoa. A frown for not using nice words?
student: "There's a note."
me: "(Name) threatened to cut another student's head off when she sat in his seat? (Name,) what?"
student: "OBVIOUSLY, I was kidding. I didn't even have a machete."

dear (blank)

Questions end in question marks, not seven exclamation points. Also, please don't crowd-source answers over e-mail for questions that A) I already answered and B) any veto to my answer could only be made by my boss. Finally, please proofread.

P.S. - The all-staff distribution list is not a toy.

i teach kids. . .

I teach kids . . .
who hide under the small group table
who memorize train schedules
who run out of the school towards the road
who call each other "dude"
who kick your knees as you hold them back from hurting someone
who give awesome hugs
who cry for hours on end
who get endless giggles
who are starfish experts
who will eat anything
who pull off my glasses and throw them
who exclaim, "I love you, Miss Eye!"
who meltdown when they misspell a word
who run to me every morning
who hit me (and their friends)
who rush to comfort a friend in crisis
who bite my arms and pull my hair
who help me clean up someone else's mess
who proclaim, "I love your class!"
who throw chairs and scissors
who ask me to eat with them at lunch
who scream while trying to stand on my shoulders as I attempt to do storytime
who ask, "I don't do stuff wrong?"
who kick and punch
who have monsters bigger than they are
who say they missed me
who make me want to be at work

hit the ground running

Hi.

I haven't abandoned blogging. I've just been working 12 hour days (I wish I was exaggerating) while trying to move in to my new place. And, to make it more awesome, we have no internet. The last tenant didn't pay their bill for cable/internet, so the provider won't hook us up. :(

My students are awesome, but some of them have pretty big difficulties that I hope I'll be able to help them with. I'm trying to make sure I do everything right, but I'm worried I'm screwing up majorly.

Anyway, I hope to be able to update regularly again soon.

off we go!

Today was the district-wide back to school celebration. I had heard from some returning faculty/staff that it was a horrible, boring waste of time. I was kind of dreading it, actually.

I loved it.

It dragged a little, at the beginning, but the superintendent was extremely funny when he spoke. I thought it was really great. He had a funny Michael Phelps/teacher joke, but telling it on here would give away the general geographic area that I teach in. Anyway, just trust me. Funny.

We worked more in the classroom again today, too. It's looking better and better, but still very few decorations. I'm definitely going to change that before the kids start. My parapro is inventorying my books for me, which hopefully is going okay since she didn't say anything. I also need to finish taking notes on my students (everyone else calls them my babies, by the way) so I can speak intelligently to my first-grade-counterparts tomorrow.

Meet-the-teacher night was also tonight. Since I'm considered a "non-homeroom teacher," I had to help with registration and residency issues instead of seeing them in my room. I met two more of my friends tonight, plus one of their moms. I AM SO EXCITED NOW!

It's getting real.

More tomorrow.

conflicted

Back to work! The weekend seemed way too short, probably because I was still busy looking for classroom supplies and packing up for my impending move. I was still exhausted by the end of it.

We had professional development today, which was a little disappointing. Everything I heard seemed so obvious to me, yet other things weren't covered. I don't know.

I also am having a conflict at work. And I'm further conflicted on if it's appropriate to say something on here. Even if the blog is mostly anonymous, I don't want to air dirty laundry. Yet, it is a major part of my initial experiences this week, which I wanted to document on here.

My room is coming together, and so are my plans for the two days this week my students come. They aren't supposed to come to my room, so I think I'm going to push-in to their classrooms those days. Past that, I'm going to teach the same academic lessons as their regular ed class PLUS social skills and affective lessons.

We have a kick-off party tomorrow, so off to bed I go.

frist day

Even though I've been working a few days already, today was the first official day for all teachers (read: not just newbies.) We had meetings in the morning, and then got to work in our rooms more after lunch.

I am constantly learning more and more about how things are done here. I felt so clueless just forty-eight hours ago, and now I'm feeling much more in control of the situation. We still have more meetings, too, so hopefully things only get better from here.

I worked on my room this afternoon. (Photos will come tomorrow, since the internet is slow here.) It looks like a classroom now, and not a landfill!

After work, I went to Miss Bee's (my roommate's) classroom at another school. She's doing pre-K, so all of her stuff is so tiny. She's done a great job with her room, I'm so jealous.

Anyway, I'm staying at Miss Bee's parents' house, so no more commuting for now. I think we get keys next week. (woot!)