Saturday, September 8, 2007

   Wow. I’ve never had so much work to do in my life. Ever.
School began late for the first time this year on August 27th, a Monday, unfortunately. A Monday! I was in school everyday from morning until night two weeks before school started.

This was mostly due to the fact that the idiot district decided to cram all the new teacher workshops into the two weeks before school started. The Friday before the first day of school was Meet the Teacher Night, and boy, I was so unprepared to meet the parents, and my room was still a mess.

Exhausted, I continued to work on my classroom over the weekend, and BAM—the first day of school rolled around. That Monday and Tuesday was rough. Mainly because Back to School Night was on Tuesday—the second day of school! I was so beat with all the work and distractions. I had a low turnout mainly because I wasn’t specific about Back to School Night in my letter to the parents. I felt terrible. Mainly because I was afraid of the parents. It sounds horrible, but the parents at the school I work at are notorious for being…

My first two days. Horrible. Horrible. The kids aren’t so bad (ofcourse I have some annoying ones, but what class doesn’t). It’s all the distractions. One meeting after another. Reading twenty emails a day from the administration reminding me to do stupid shit that they should’ve informed me over the summer when I had time. And the paperwork that I wasted time getting and filling out. Horrible. Everything got in the way of planning quality lessons. The school and the district got in the way of teaching.

Then the kids, they come with a lot of baggage, too. But, that goes with everyone. I believe I got the best of the bunch actually. But at times, I just want to scream.

Third graders. They’re a big step away from the fourth graders I worked with. A giant step. Socially, and ofcourse academically. The latter is understandable. They definitely have poorer manners (I don’t know if it’s because of this grade or the region). Though, it kind of seems that as I meet them every day, they’re getting better and better at understanding expectations.

On the second or third day of school I gave a short speech at the end of the day about my disappointment of their behavior. As the children were being dismissed, this one child snuck up and hugged me, apologized for what happened, promised me he’d be better tomorrow, and ran out. It was so fast, I didn’t know how to react. That was a breaking point for me, and I didn’t realize later until I started talking about it.

Later that night I cried so much. I was exhausted. Meet the Teacher was over, the first day of school was over, Back to School Night was over. I had the rest of the week to go.

The third, fourth, and finally, the last day of the first week of school passed, and I realized that I survived it with a straight face. A straight face on the outside.

That weekend I had a little rest and relaxation as well as continued the cycle of eternal paperwork from hell. Thank goodness for the 3-day weekend.

The second week of school passed as well, and I realized how high I’d set the bar for the children, and I needed to simplify things more without lowering the bar. I did more paperwork and organizing materials this weekend, and it will continue forever unfortunately.

The principal had told me he’ll drop by my classroom sometime next week. Instead, he made a surprise visit on Friday. It was during independent reading time and… the kids were perfect. Eerily perfect actually, and I could tell he was quite displaced because the children were so into their reading that only one student noticed he was even there.

I love Reading and Writing time. It’s the calmest time of the day. And the children seem to really enjoy it. I teach brief mini-lessons to improve their reading and writing, and the rest is independent work. I have the atmosphere set in a way with gentle lamps, and piano music playing in the background. They’re disappointed when I say we won’t have a read-aloud, but their spirits lift when they know they can do their independent reading and writing. Then I give everyone a chance to share what they’ve done, and the looks on their faces when they don’t get to share that day will kill you. This is the only time in the day when I usually don’t have any urges to scream or any screaming children.

I have quite a few characters in my room. Some were born to be models for children’s cartoon shows.


That’s enough for now. The paperwork continues tomorrow. =*(

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