I made it through my first week of teaching.

Holy hell.

Bullets are a must!

  • The first day went well. In fourth grade, most of the kids are still excited about being back in school. If you're nice to them, they'll love you. I also showed them my All About Mrs. movie, which they loved. Some of my kids have seen it 6 times and still ask to see it again. I call that a success. They really just love seeing the pictures of the cats, but I'll take it.
  • I have a student that goes to the beach every year the first week of school. Mom asked me for homework a week before school started. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was taking things hour by hour and planning the second week of school, uh, not gonna happen. The first day of school she arrives early and asks if I have her daughter's homework ready. Uh, no. Just trying to make it through the day. "Well, we're leaving on Friday!" Yeah, yeah, yeah I'll get something to you. I got homework around Wednesday night, it'll just have to work. Good enough for government work.
  • Another student suffers from a medical condition that makes him throw up randomly. Uh, I don't do throwing up. Luckily, there haven't been any problems...yet.
  • Same student's parent asked that I refrain from giving him candy. Fine. I can understand that, especially with a kid with ADHD. HOWEVER! Every day, he has brought a different kind of candy from home. What the hell!? I can't give him a jolly rancher, but he can bring a container of Warheads with him? He's also the only one bucking the water bottle rule. My kids can have a water bottle with water in it. I told them, no powdered drink mixes for the water. Just water. First day, he brings Gatorade. I told him it has to be just water. "Okay, Mrs." he replied. The next day, he brings fitness water. Flavored fitness water. For the love of Pete, water. W-A-T-E-R.
  • We've already got a problem parent. The kicker? She's another teacher in my school! Our team decided as a "goal" 4th graders have to know their multiplication tables. Since it's a 3rd grade standard, we figured that's fair. We are going to give timed multiplication tests at least once a week. To "pass" you have to get at least a 90% three times. If you don't know your times tables, you can't get an A. I think that's fair. Thoughts? She went to the administration about it. Too bad it was the administration's idea. Heh.
  • For the first week we had to eat lunch with our children. Oy.. Vey. The kids love it, but really, I'd like a few moments to myself. They're going to be sad next week when Mrs. leaves them in the lunchroom and goes to put her head down on her desk.
  • Friday just about killed me. I think I've mentioned my 0 tolerance of heat, right? Well, I get to school on Friday and the air conditioning in the fourth grade wing isn't working. WHAT!? They call the repair guy and I figure we'll just deal. I've got a fan, we'll survive. By lunch we were melting. I finally felt the air kick at 2:30. The kids leave at 3. Did I mention the bank clock said it was 108° today? I told the office I was seriously considering getting the personal air conditioners I saw at T.arget. I'd just take it with me wherever I went.
  • Don't tell the other teacher's on my team, but I think I got the best classes. How do I know? Well, yesterday I had the team leader's class for science. Oh. my. goodness. It was bedlam! He has all the inclusion kids in his class and it was...in a word, bedlam. The special ed teacher was there as a co-teacher to help and that's the only reason I made it through the class. He's talking about having to teach another class during the afternoon. I told him after school, "Please, please don't leave me alone with these children. PLEASE!" He laughed. When is a good time to tell him, I'M NOT KIDDING!
  • My homeroom is great. Sure, they get squirrelly. They're 9! However, they listen and they're kind. I'll plan four different subjects, just let me keep my own kids! After team leader's kids yesterday afternoon I love my homeroom!
  • I was talking to Mo Mom about the bedlam in my room yesterday and she laughed and said, "Oh, it's like a class full of Wild Childs" (Wild Child is another nickname for her middle daughter). I told her she needed to go hug that little girl and tell her how wonderful she is because I would take a class of Wild Childs over this class, any day.
Right now, I'm doing anything to avoid finishing next week's lesson plans. Reading seems to be overwhelming me. I have the low average group and I'm just not quite sure what to do with them. Any teacher-y people have any suggestions?