Week One: Check!

I'm SO happy with this school so far! Everyone is so kind, and staff members I don't even know will ask me how everything's going and if I need anything. The atmosphere is wonderful :-)

The second institute day was SUPER fun, with 2 presentations by Danny Brassell. He was fantastic, I definitely recommend seeing him!!! Then the TAs spent more time learning routines and whatnot.

The first day of school was just a whirlwind. My schedule got changed an hour into the day, which is fine with me, I just felt bad because I didn't know if the other teacher was still expecting me. I didn't do as well with the behavior plan as I should have -- we're supposed to give out a lot of stars, but I barely gave out any because I felt like either no one deserved one or everyone deserved one, and we weren't supposed to hand them out to entire classes!!! For a couple of hours I ended up just sitting and observing in the classroom I'll be in for most of the day...
:-) I think my favorite part of Day 1 was going into the 1st grade classroom at the end of the day. The teacher told me she needed help with one difficult student, so I set out to make friends with him. Unfortunately, he didn't want to do anything but color his bus that he hadn't finished, while all the kids were supposed to be on the carpet... I tried pushing him, but he almost threw a temper tantrum, so I decided to just leave him be, and sat next to him. Eventually he started talking to me, and decided that I was his best friend. Super cute!!! He wanted me to pick him up to dance with him, since the other kids were dancing, but I convinced him that I wasn't strong enough, so we held hands and danced. ;-) After the dancing, I tried to get him on the carpet again, at which point he decided that he hated me... so much for best friends! ;-)

Day 2 was another whirlwind of figuring out schedules and procedures. I'm so unsure of myself because they way they do things is different than what I'm used to from student teaching and summer camp! Again, I spent probably 2 hours not really DOING anything, but I got home and was still ready to crash!
:-) I ended up in a different 1st grade classroom, and met another special friend... he LOVED his scissors. He was playing around with them, and ended up almost stabbing himself and the kids around him multiple times, but he would not let go! When it was time to pack up, he put his (sharp) scissors point-down in his backpack. I was SO worried that he was going to end up stabbing someone on the bus, that when his teacher went to go put some papers in his backpack, I mouthed that he had scissors in the pocket, and asked if she could grab them. She (very sneakily) got them out and put them on her desk. I hope he didn't have a fit when he got home, but better safe than sorry!!!

Day 3 (HAPPY FRIDAY!) was MUCH more fun! I got to give a few assessments to determine student levels for a reading program, and helped grade papers for 4th grade. Then in 1st grade the teacher asked me to help her out while she finished up her assessments -- so I got to do some letter awareness activities with them (or something, I can't remember what it's called...)! Yay for being back to teach 1st graders! Too bad they weren't as well-behaved as my student teaching class... oh well, we'll all learn!
:-) I was grading the 4th graders' spelling pre-tests... LOVED some of the spellings they came up with: "impotent" for "important," "binge" for "begin," and ...oh rats, I can't remember the best one!!! I'll post it later if I can think of it! ;-)

Well, Week 1 is complete! I'm excited to see what the rest of the year will hold!!! :-)

Day 1

Besides the New Staff Orientation, today was my first day at Lotus. I had a great time! Most of the teachers and other staff are incredibly friendly, especially the teacher I will be working with the most (if my schedule doesn't end up changing again!).

The morning was a slow start, with presentations about insurance and other benefits. Then I got to go with the 4th grade team to see their rooms before lunch. After lunch the TAs had a meeting to discuss some of our procedures, such as getting the students on and off buses, and recess/lunch supervision. Tomorrow we'll learn more of that stuff while the teachers have their "Meet and Greet" with students and families. After that meeting, I went back to 4th grade to help with what I could. :-)

In writing, it's pretty dull, but I'm SO excited that the teacher I'll (hopefully) be working with is so fantastic!! I can't wait to learn the interventions/activities I'll actually get to do with the kids!!! :-)