Take each day!

So I am trying something new. 

I have been very pessimistic and my area of work has a lot to do with it. Well let's be honest, I am only pessimistic when I am either at work or talking about work. So I think the pessimist award goes to...work. 

I just do not understand a lot of the decisions that they make and I have so much extra work to do because of these decisions, which does not make me understand them any better. 

Anyway back to trying something new. I was discussing my  negative attitude with someone (I would deem my mentor) and she said that I should make a goal each day. 

So I made a frame. Inside the frame it says Today I will ... with three lines. So I will write on the glass each day and try and focus on one thing each day. 

I will also be focusing on doing this for the Lord and not for myself, the administrators and not for the students. Hopefully with that focus I can move mountains. 

Today I was focusing on Patience. I did well until 1:30. So I am thinking tomorrow may have the same goal!

A funny!

I said that other day that I sounded like a broken record and my kids said, " What is that?" I realized that what generation I was talking to so I rephrased it and said I sound like a skipping CD. They understood that one much better. HA

I like, I do not like

I am beginning to realize that I really enjoy teaching and being in front of the class but there are some things that I do not take as much enjoyment in. These include...

• grading or marking, as I like to say thank you Canada. 
• writing lesson plans
• classroom management
• dealing with their childish problems, "He stole my pencil." "She looked at me funny." and so on.

I know that classroom management is essential and I would say that I, for the most part, have them in line, but the continual having to be consistent and insistent, BRUCE, can be tiring and repetitive.

I try to do as much grading as I can in class, but feel as though I am wasting valuable teaching time. If I did not I would spend all of my time grading/marking and I do not want it to be my life.

At the school I am at we have to do full lesson plans, very detailed, which can be irritating, has become much faster.

I do not event know how much many times I have said, "I am not teaching kindergarten. If I wanted to I would be, but I am not. So please deal with your own problems and stop complaining about everything little thing."

It is a learning curve for sure and I hope that I can find some good routines for grading and what not. To save my sanity.

the first year

So it has been a while since I posted.

I now have a full time teaching job. It is quite surreal. I am teaching grade 5 at a charter school about a half hour commute from my house. My first day went well, but I was so immensely overwhelmed at the end of the day, the only way I new to relieve that stress was to cry. And boy did I. I cried my whole half hour home and then felt so much better. I have not cried since.

Each day/week seems to get easier. My planning does not seem to take as long as it did that first few weeks. My copies are prepared the week before I need them, instead of the the day before I need them.

I love Copies. I will say it. I hate that I go through paper like crazy, but I cannot help it. I love copies. They are my best friend as a teacher. I go through about 2 reams of paper every two weeks or so. It may seem ridiculous, but ask any teacher, copies make your life easier.

My class is pretty good. They are children which I need to keep reminding myself of. They are only 10 or so and they are not completely in control of their own mouths. (But lets be honest, some adults aren't even in control of their mouths) I vow to not raise my voice often, yes use a stern voice, but I do not want to yell. I hear some of the other teachers yelling and I feel as though it is not effective. I think this because they are still yelling and we are 5 weeks in. So I want to try a different tactic. I am really trying to focus on positive reinforcement and taking time to discuss proper behavior and attitudes. We shall see if it works out.

I am almost an eighth of the way through the year.

not much has changed, but the scenery

So school is officially over, well it has been for about a week now. I am in transition from the school year to summer programming. I am with the big kids 1st-6th grade and they are a delight. Coming from the kindergarteners that are crazy and loud, these kids are gems and welcome relief.

I have been feeling these last few years that kids are growing up so fast, but this week has reassured me a bit that some things do not/have not changed much.

A girl brought in a plastic container that had a lot of strings organized in it and she wanted to make friendship bracelets. This is something that I did very often when I was young. I am currently sporting one on my ankle as we speak.

The girls have been playing school every moment they get. They pick up on all of the things that their teachers do and say and they mimic them to teach other. It is hilarious and also very endearing, because these kids are being kids. They are using their imagination and playing. Which is something that I did all of the time when I was young. School and house were my top two games I would play.

We played MASH the other day. One of the girls had a notebook with prewritten cateories. It was seriously a blast from the past. We would write our own categories that would fill entire notebook page from vacation spots to pet names. I married Simon Cowel which made me laugh.

I like that some things have stayed the same. Children seem to be amused with the same activities that amused us. They may have Ds' and PSPs, but we had Game Boys, or as my brother had a Sega Game Gear. It was much larger than the ones they have now a-days. But equally as effective. They still play school, kickball, and foursquare.

It gives me a little more hope that kids are still being kids. They may try to act cool and older than they truly are, but really they will jump at the chance to play school.

Big Step

So I took a big step today. It is a step that I needed to take a while ago, but for some reason I procrastinated, well I know the reason and I will get to it in a bit. I finally registered to take a few tests that I need to take to be a certified teacher in Illinois. You may be asking why it has taken me a year to register for these tests. Well I am afraid. As long as I can remember I have never been very good at tests, especially the standardized ones. I always second guess myself and I sweat like crazy because I am so nervous. I read and reread things numerous times because for some reason I am not retaining information because I am so nervous. I also didn't want to register for these tests because it is such a commitment. I hesitated when pressing the submit button because it was such a commitment, I was locked in. So weird.


Not sure if you remember back when I had to take a test for Family Video and I was so nervous, I was racing through things and I did not feel very good about the outcome, but I was wrong. I passed it, so maybe I am getting better at tests. We shall see, I have about a month and half to get prepared. I need to buy study material and put some real effort into this. Not my half-assed normal effort that I put into almost everything else in my life. But an extra dose of effort that is of someone else. Because I cannot afford to fail these things. I mean literally I cannot afford to fail them and then have to take them again. So fingers crossed.

the stereotype

So I am at home by myself on a Saturday night. My mom is away for the weekend. My go-to friend is away as well, does that sounds bad? go-to friend? anyway... I am thinking about how as a college graduate I am the stereotype, I moved home.

I am in my mi-mid- oh man my midtwenties now, wow that is hard to grasp. I was working at the video store last night and my new manager said he felt older than he was at 22 and I said that I do not feel as old as I am. I seriously do not, high school in some ways feel like yesterday, not seven years ago. It is weird, time just keeps going and I, in some ways feel as though I cannot catch up. It is an odd feeling, hard to describe.

Back to the subject at hand. I am the stereotype. I live at home. I am not completely ashamed by it. It is the sensible decision to make. But I also wonder if any self-respecting boy is going to find it remotely attractive. But then I also think that I do not really care because right now, to be completely honest, I am not looking for anyone, in that sort of way. These are the ramblings of my mind, after two glasses of wine and some solitude!

Stay tune for some more! My mind is always a going.