Thoughts

Normally when I post I feel like I need to say something exciting that has happened and I need a picture to go along with it but I don't think I always need to do that. Sometimes it's nice to just write out your thoughts

Thought #1

Well I guess this is more venting than a thought but I've concluded that as a teacher the first two weeks of February is the craziest time of the year. It's when all of the DRA testing and Math assessments for Kindergarten are done and have to be entered, it's when SEP (parent teacher) conferences are (which by the way I have twice as many parents to meet with, 49 to be exact), you have to get a sub for when you test so you have to make sub plans, this week I have 2 party days the 100th day of school and Valentines (and yeah you remember part days being fun but they aren't so fun for the teacher when the whole class is extra hyper the whole day), Report cards are due at the end of the month, I have to get observed by my principal, and then you get behind on all the little things like keeping your desk organized, giving kids the little rewards for doing their homework, keeping your house clean, thinking ahead on what to make for dinner, laundry, etc. I'm not the type of person to get stressed but lets just say I went to Staples today and when I had to check out he asked for my phone number and I said it to him and had to say it in my head like 5 times after because it didn't sound right and I thought I told him the wrong number and then when I had to type in my pin number it took me like 5 seconds to remember it. haha

Thought #2

Last Friday was professional development day for teachers and we were lucky to have someone come who travels around giving seminars for Stephen Covey and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He did a whole seminar for us teachers and it was really inspiring. He got us, well at least me, out of our comfort zone and had us write a personal mission statement which is a statement of why we are here and who we want to be. And things like who we want to come to our 80th birthday and what things they would say about us if they gave us a toast.

And then after doing all these personal improvements he talked about a newer book that came out about how we can teach children these 7 habits as young as 5 years old. It's called The Leader in Me. There was an elementary school where the principal made the 7 habits the schools theme and all the teachers taught these habits and practiced them all the time with their students. The outcome was amazing.

Now as a teacher this is really inspiring because one of the main reasons I wanted to be a teacher is to make a difference in childrens lives. Not just academically but I guess change how they are as people in general. They say everything you need to learn, they teach you in kindergarten and yeah I'm trying to teach them how to share and follow rules but I want to teach them more and what this book really talks about is how to teach them to lead. So my goal is to teach these habits to my students and really practice and help them become better leaders because that is what will really make them succeed in the long run.

Anyways at the end of the meeting our principal spoke to us for a few minutes and he started kind of choking up as he was talking and then all of the teachers were crying incuding me and I rarely cry. I think all of that personal thinking and talkign about changing kids lives made us emotional and also we had a teacher at our school recently suddenly pass away which was really hard for a lot of people and then he just announced that another teacher who retired 2 years ago just passed away that morning (I didn't know her). Oh and then a few days earlier he announced that he was going to be transferred to another school which was really sad for me to hear because he's such a great principal and is just the kind of guy who you know is there to help. So it was a good, emotional, inspiring day and it kind of gave me the energy that I needed at that time to wanting to be a great teacher and do more.

Thought # 3

Okay, I know I had a thought number 3 going into this post but now I can't remember what it was..see that's from my mind going crazy with all these other things I have to do. Well, there's probably no one reading this anymore anyways because I made this way too long so maybe I'll update it later when I think of it.

So I know I told you I wouldn't have pictures but I remembered that I took some pictures of my classroom the other day and since this post was mainly about school I thought I'd post the pictures. As you can see, I have a ocean/beach theme in my class. It makes me happy and warm in the winter.

They don't get the school of fish thing I wrote on the wall. They're always like "why do you have a school of fish?" I just realized I never got around to explaining it either I guess I ought to do that.




These are the fish my classes just earned. They named them Bob and Max. Actually they earned them right before Christmas break so I told my classes I'd get them fish for when they got back from Christmas. Well the Sat. before school started I got 2 fish and then when I came to school that Monday they were dead! So the kids came in and saw the fish bowl and looked all over for the fish and couldn't find them so I had to tell them that they died. I felt SO BAD! But now Bob and Max have lived for over a month so there's great hope!