Not much is new….

I’m still dead tired, and I hope I get used to this schedule soon.  It was a little easier to wake up this morning at 6am, so hopefully by the end of next week I’ll be on a more regular schedule and won’t find it so draining.

I am really enjoying the classroom and school I am in right now.  M and G are great teachers and I feel that I’ve fit in well into their classroom and routine.  The entire school is very welcoming and friendly.  Today will be the 3rd day of school, and we are still working out the routine and all the kinks.  I’m hoping that next week will start to run smoother and I’ll begin to get the schedule down.  I am trying to soak up every ounce of anything from M and G while I’m in this beginning process of teaching.  I noticed that when I go to sleep at night I’ve used that as my reflection time to think about things that went on during the day. I realized that teaching is much like an acting job- you are constantly puttin on little skits for the kids and acting goofy and dumb just to keep their attention.  M said to me, after I mentioned that, that she often will think "Ok, Act 1 is done…".  I also noticed that I am trying to find a balance with the noise level in the class. When I am leading the class I tend to start to stress when kids speak out or the noise level increases.  I know that some amount is acceptable but when I am teaching its hard for me (at this point) to know if I just think it is too loud because I’m a little nervous or if I go to correct it I’m being too hard on them.  I know it’ll work out and I’ll transition into something I’m comfortbable with, but for now I’m just watching watching watching M and G to see how they handle situations that I know I’d be nervous in.

Yesterday one of the little boys got on Red light (we have a stoplight system, everyone is on green- after a warning and they repeat the offense, they move their clip to yellow and then third offense is red- call home).  He had to say in for 5 min with me while the rest went outside to do the Hula contest (Aloha Hawaii theme for the 2nd grade this year).  Anyway, G asked me to talk to him about listening and making better choices and let him know that we won’t call home this time b/c its just the 2nd day of school.  He cried. I wasn’t sure if I should be like ‘oh poor baby you got a red light" or if I should be on the lines of "Tough it up you made the bad choice".  So, I reassured him that everyone makes bad choices sometime or another and that others this year will get a red light, and tomorrow is a new day to make better choices.  He is such a sweetheart and it about broke my heart to see him cry.  G talked to him after we joined the class outside and let him know that we love having him in the class. 

Anyway, I have to leave in a minute. So, just wanted to update since I had a few minutes.  I still haven’t had time to get my pics off my camera.  GRR.  How do people work full time and still have a life??