Day 14: Thursday, August 23, 2012
I woke up feeling refreshed...asked the Lord to take over the day...Mom sent me a few emails that caused me to cry before heading into work for the day, but I was feeling much better and less overwhelmed than the night before. She sent a beautiful story and an inspirational poem about teaching. I want to LOVE AND TEACH THOSE KIDS and not be distracted by “the job” and the heaviness that comes with responsibility.
At this point, I need to be constantly reminded that it takes TIME to transition and adapt as a teacher - and it will be that way throughout my entire career...seeing as there are always new things to face. I actually caught myself saying at the end of today “wow, I’m turning into a Grade 2!” I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not...?
It felt more normal today...I felt happy and more excited when I got to school. This morning I was reading a story at the carpet and it was called “DINOFOURS” and it was about a little girl dinosaur who went on a trip with her class to the ocean. She was SO scared to try swimming...but then she thought back on all of the brave things she had done, all of her valuable experiences, and that helped her to feel more ready for swimming in the ocean. Her teacher encouraged her and offered to hold her hand. With each wave that came, the little Dinosaur had more fun and felt more comfortable. This is how I feel about teaching! (Not only the fact that I have a responsibility to encourage and help these children to try new experiences...) But I also feel like the scared little dinosaur, jumping into the waves! I know that’s incredibly cheesy - but I can’t simply ignore a good analogy like that!
At the end of the story, the Dinosaur sang a song about swimming in the ocean. I made up some random tune...some of the boys plugged their ears - so I decided to try rapping...they seemed to like that much more!
While I was reading the story...someone ‘let one go’ - it was quite obvious...a couple giggled and one girl went “EWW” - I quickly said “everyone toots, don’t worry about it” and kept reading - I didn’t hear any comments or laughter after that!
One little girl brought some things from home to put on her desk - the Holy Bible was one of them. I pointed to it and simply said “Hey, that’s my favourite book!” God is giving me many sweet little opportunities throughout the day. I drew a cartoon teacher on a piece of paper today and asked the kids to tell me what a good teacher is...one girl said “they should wear their hair up” (I was wearing mine down) - “Oh, you don’t like my hair?” and she shook her head. It was so funny!
I use a ‘magnet’ system for management. The attendance is done with apple name tags stuck on the blackboard, so if I have to give a student a warning about something - I put a yellow magnet on their apple. If I have to warn them AGAIN - I put a white magnet on there which means that we have to have a chat about their behaviour. If they do it AGAIN after the chat, then I put a blue magnet on and that means we need to agree on a consequence for their behaviour. (They suggested a timeout but I’m not so sure that sitting out of work or activity is the best plan.) Also - the colours are totally random based on what magnets were on my blackboard...it was a fairly spontaneous strategy! Today I had my first “chat” with one student...she looked so innocent and cute - she even reminded me at recess that we needed to have a chat. We sat down and I asked her if she knew why we were chatting and she quickly responded... “yes, because we need to respect the teacher when she’s talking.” How can you possibly be hard on a child like that?! I definitely need to work on being a little more stern. I thanked her and explained that she is respectful some of the time, but sometimes she interrupts me so she has to be careful. It was a nice chat. I hope that I don’t have to do many more of those!
Here are a few little smile-stories that I remember from my second day...
We filled out an “All About Me” poster today to put on the bulletin board outside our classroom door (when Miss Henderson FINALLY puts up the background and border...) and one of the boxes on the poster is “I want to be when I grow up...” - and one girl said, a VAMPIRE. Oh dear. Hilarious.
There are many sweet moments throughout the day, one today was a girl looking at my rings, she said she liked them and that the green one is her favourite. :) I was happy to call home afterward and tell Mom, she gave it to me for graduation.
Today as my kids were leaving out the door, one turned to me and said... “Teacher, I met you yesterday?” .... I thought about it for a second and said yes, yes you did - but it seems like it’s been longer than that, doesn’t it? She agreed. I think that’s a good thing? Hard to say...
We three primary teachers are ALREADY dressing alike - we all had tan capris on today...each of us wearing a brightly coloured shirt - me in blue, Grade 1 teacher in pink and Grade 3 in purple. I love coincidences like that.
After school, my teacher friend (also new to Patuanak) came to ask me some questions - he wanted my list of teacher websites from my year at good ole Nipissing! He also helps me out tech-wise and gives us little lessons...so helpful!
I also chatted with the Grade 1 teacher about plans - reassuring. And I wrecked the laminator. She gave me fair warning on how to use it and what to watch for...it was going SO well for SO long - I laminated most of my calendar pieces but then the plastic role started to run out and I didn’t notice.
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| thank you for the encouragement, Jess! |
Thursday night was the first night that I could cook at home....(the super nice maintenance guy fixed my stove - twas a breaker issue again!) - and I fried an egg. Pathetic first meal to cook, I know. YUMMY though, and it’s exactly what I wanted!
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