Woo Hoo!

This is just a short little post to update everyone. Today was a great day because, I did not get my pink slip!! I have job for another year! Anyway, I'm very relieved! The stress of waiting to find out what was going to happen with the budget has been ridiculous! Other than that I'm learning new things about teaching everyday and I really feel like I'm starting to make some progress with my students. My blog would be longer, but I'm actually really exhausted so I'm going to go relax!

Seriously?!

So today I went up and asked my dad if he thought I would get in trouble for showing my students the Inauguration tomorrow. I mean, I would only show the swearing in ceremony because I'm sure it would be online. My dad said something that shocked me. He said that I would most likely get in trouble. Not because of politics or anything like that, but because, he said, we are supposed to be teaching. I can't think of a more teachable moment! This is history whether or not you like Barack Obama, I think my students should be exposed to it. I mean, most of my kids thought that Corcoran was part of Mexico. When the school year started they didn't even know what the Olympics were! (and we were right in the middle of them at the time!) I mean no amount of reading, writing, or math is going to help my students if they don't understand the world around them. It is truly sad that we are now so focused on test scores and everything that we forget that we are educators. I feel like I'm the only person who will expose these kids to life outside of Corcoran. I know their parents won't. I'm just really shocked and upset. I don't even know what to say.

I Made It!

I made it through the first half of the year. I have really learned a lot and I hope to go back next month with a new perspective. I have had a lot of new experiences and I think I'm finally starting to like teaching. When I first started I was really excited, but, it didn't take long for me to question whether or not I had made the right decision. I felt totally unprepared for the problems my students have. However, I feel much better now looking back on the experiences I have had. I also got my mid year evaluation and my principal didn't have anything to complain about. In fact she complemented me on how much my classroom management has improved and my consistent test scores. Yay! I feel much better now that I know barring any disasters I should be hired back next year. However, she did suggest that I work on my organizational skills. I have piles for everything and I know where everything is, but I understand why she would like to see it more organized.

Friday was our "Winter Program." My class teamed up with another third grade class next door and we sang "Reindeer Jive" and "Feliz Navidad." "Reindeer Jive" is the cutest song ever! For that song our kids all made antler hats and they had a dance for it. For "Feliz Navidad" they made maracas. They all had a great time. I also had the kids make picture frames to give to their parents for Christmas. Let me tell you something, I am so tired of art projects! I had to hot glue together 34 picture frames so that my students could make one for each parent since most come from split homes. Then, we used paper mache (I think that's how it's spelled but if I spelled it wrong I mean ma-shay) and blown up water balloons to make the maracas, so having about 40 kids working on those was a chore. After they dried we had them paint the maracas. Then, after the paint dried I poured rock salt and hot glued sticks into each maraca. It was really time consuming! Anyway after lunch yesterday we had a small party in the classroom. I gave all of my kids a book, a pair of gloves, a pencil and some candy. They all really liked their gifts! I had one student get me a magnet that said "Teachers make the little ones count" or something like that. Another student got me a picture frame snow globe. Most of my students gave me some candy or something like that. It was really exciting!
Darren is coming down to visit my family and go to a family Christmas party with me so that's exciting! But, that's about all for now!

And sometimes they do something nice...

Most of the time I feel as though I'm fighting an uphill battle with my students. It is hard to make them care about much of anything. However, yesterday they did something that I found to be absolutely adorable. There was a spider that came down from the ceiling(yuck!) during class yesterday and one of my kids, a seriously disturbed little boy, got up from his desk and tried to kill it. Then I hear, "Don't kill her! That's Charlotte!" I found this to be just so precious because we are reading Charlotte's Web right now and my kids actually care about something! So all day long I heard conversations about how Charlotte had come to visit us, (obviously we haven't read the end of the book yet) but it was still a great moment even though I HATE spiders!

Long time no blog...

Wow, it's Thanksgiving already! I feel like I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. Teaching is going pretty well, I think I finally am getting the hang of it. It's been much harder than I expected. I look at the class I have as a learning experience, I'm getting to deal with just about everything you can imagine. There have been times when it is extremely frustrating, most of my evaluations have been good, but it's hard to hear that I'm doing things right, but I feel my kids aren't learning. I guess I just expect too much of them. I don't know, but I'll keep working on it. Other than working, I've been taking credential classes. I love the other people in my cohort. We have so much fun! My classes are going well, I'm getting good grades, but it's just overwhelming sometimes.

I've been able to make it up to Fresno a couple of times. I miss everyone up there very much. I feel like I have no life anymore, it's just work and school. I don't really hang out with anyone or do anything during the week and most weekends. It's been nice to be able to escape to Fresno. (That's something I never thought I would say lol) Anyway, I made it to Thanksgiving break and I'm still alive, my students are still alive and I guess that's a good thing! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

School!

So I made it through the first 2 days of school! My kids are so much fun, I guess for the most part. Some of my kids are, well, challenging to say the least. But I'm having a great time and I think this year is going to be great! My room looks amazing, thanks in part to Darren. He came down to help me decorate my room since I was stuck in meetings for a good portion of last week. Other than that, we've already had back to school night and that went well. I got to meet a lot of the parents or grandparents or whoever is raising the student. I would say a little less than half of the parents don't speak any English, but I had all of my paperwork in English and Spanish so they were able to get the information. That's about it for now, I know there's more, but I'm tired. Who knew that teaching could be so exhausting?

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

I noticed all of my spelling errors in the last blog, but I can't edit it! Don't worry, I can spell, I just can't type! lol

Ok so...

I don't know what the Olympic comittee was thinking when they put the Olympics in China. Everything since the start has been full of controversy and the women's team gymnastics is just the latest controversy. Sorry to get all political, but it really bothers me. I know that nothing that happens in the Olympics has any affect on me whatsoever, but it somehow makes it imposible to watch when things aren't fair. I just think that something as simple as a sporting event should set politics aside and bring everyone together, but that hasn't happened for a long time. So why do I keep watching? Maybe it's because I have hope that someday things are going to be fair and people who are truly talented will get the chance that is rightfully theirs. It's not just the Olympics, it's a lot of sporting events. I can't remember the last time I watched a football game or whatever that was called correctly. I love sports, but I guess it's too much to ask to have people beleive the same way I do. Sport should be just that, it shouldn't be money changing hands to corrupt officials or governments interferring in what should be the most unifying time. True sport is simple and fun, I guess it can't be that anymore and people like myself just can't watch anymore.