I am alive. After six days of teaching, I love my kiddos, even the ones who drive me crazy (and believe me, there are plenty of them). I am also exhausted, which explains the lack of blog updates. When I left school at 6:05 today--a new non-Friday record--I thought I would have plenty of time to update the blog this evening. Then I went for a run, had to deal with a parent on the phone, ate dinner, took 20 minutes to watch TV, had to finish prepping for tomorrow, and here we are at 10 pm, with the dishes still to do, laundry still to fold, an email newly arrived in my inbox saying I have to find two hours worth of activities for my para to run tomorrow while I do literacy testing, and my alarm ready to go at 5:45 am.
The long update is coming. Teaching is hard, believe me. Trying to get through to an eight-year-old who just doesn't want to listen to you--particularly when that eight-year-old has other things going on, like ADHD or, in the most severe case in one of my classes, an emotional disturbance and bipolar disorder--is exhausting. There have been moments when I have come close to tears (specifically, when said behavior challenge began singing "I'm Too Sexy" at the top of his lungs while in line for the bathroom, causing the principal to come out in the hall and escort him away from class). But there are also great moments--the number of hands that go up in the morning when I ask for helpers, even for the job of milk-bucket toter, which I find entirely unenviable (you walk around the classroom with a bucket and a strainer and everyone pours their cereal in). The face of a kid who has struggled all class period long when he finally knows an answer, raises his hand, and gets it right. The kid who patiently pulls out pencil after pencil to give his neighbor to try to get him back on task, even though his neighbor keeps throwing them on the floor in an act of defiance.
Today was a good day. Today, most of my kids got it. Today, there was only half an hour when I wanted to scream out of frustration. Tomorrow is Tuesday. I'm hoping that Tuesday is a good day too.
The long update is coming. Teaching is hard, believe me. Trying to get through to an eight-year-old who just doesn't want to listen to you--particularly when that eight-year-old has other things going on, like ADHD or, in the most severe case in one of my classes, an emotional disturbance and bipolar disorder--is exhausting. There have been moments when I have come close to tears (specifically, when said behavior challenge began singing "I'm Too Sexy" at the top of his lungs while in line for the bathroom, causing the principal to come out in the hall and escort him away from class). But there are also great moments--the number of hands that go up in the morning when I ask for helpers, even for the job of milk-bucket toter, which I find entirely unenviable (you walk around the classroom with a bucket and a strainer and everyone pours their cereal in). The face of a kid who has struggled all class period long when he finally knows an answer, raises his hand, and gets it right. The kid who patiently pulls out pencil after pencil to give his neighbor to try to get him back on task, even though his neighbor keeps throwing them on the floor in an act of defiance.
Today was a good day. Today, most of my kids got it. Today, there was only half an hour when I wanted to scream out of frustration. Tomorrow is Tuesday. I'm hoping that Tuesday is a good day too.
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