What did I get myself into?! Just kidding. I'm not regretting my career choice. These last few days have been H-A-R-D, HARD!!! Tuesday we had parent orientation. Irma and I put a power point together and presented it to parents. Can I just say how odd it feels to be talking to adults as an adult. A responsible adult who will be caring for their children?! I hope I didn't say um 15,000 times. I didn't practice at all but I think it went ok. Wednesday and Thursday (Today) we had all of our kids for the first time. I don't know if I've said this before but I have fifty students divided into four two day a week classes. We have M/W and T/Th AM and PM classes. In case you didn't realize....THAT IS A LOT OF KIDS!!! Not to mention the number of IEPs I'm supposed to keep track of. Wednesday morning I was lucky to enjoy a tantrum...for the whole two and a half hours the kid was there. It took me 15 minutes to walk him in from recess. This involved him throwing himself down on the grass and pavement every five seconds, kicking off those sweet spider man shoes, and of course LOTS of screaming. Can you visualize it? Wore me out. The whole time I kept scanning my brain of everything I learned during my four years of school, all to no avail. I really think he was sick and just having a bad day because the FIRST first day of school is bound to be traumatic for the youngins. Lets all hope, and pray that these kids adjust...preferably quickly. Wednesday afternoon consisted of angel children. Praise the Lord. Tender mercies happen people. They are all stinking cute as well, it helped me recuperate a tad. Then came today. The morning class is all three year olds. Apparently the District started this system for the last two months of last year. If we are judging off today, I very much dislike it (them all being in the same class that is). It's amazing how much more independent a year makes them, and the amount of energy they loose. They were again ADORABLE! Especially because they are all so little, but OH SO MUCH WORK! My back was killing me by the end... and bathrooms aka diaper changes took a half hour. Oh, and lets not forget that my monkeys got painted green, no worries I saved them.That class will have to be run COMPLETELY different from the others. There is no way we can continue to function the way we did today. Then came the afternoon class. It was SO awesome to have big kids again. It made me grateful for four year olds. Walking in we had a few tears because as we all know, leaving mama is hard, but it was nothing I couldn't calm down within a few minutes with a few toys/ distractions. So there we were sitting at circle with our faces drying off and smiles reappearing when it happened. One little kiddo was picking his nose and my lovely TA kindly asked him to take them out and instructed him that it was gross. Let the sobs begin?! Really? This kid was happy to come to school, waved off mom like it was no big deal, told me the letters of his name no problem, and went to circle. Then he began to cry... and not just little tears. The hard type of crying, where you think they're going to either vomit or pass out. Folks it lasted the whole two and a half hours as well. But this one takes the cake. No self soothing occurred, no volume decreases, no nothing. Honestly... it was kind of amazing, that kid has a set of lungs! The other kids kept plugging their ears and I was just waiting for the teachers next door to come smack me. I tried every distraction in the book and that kid wouldn't budge. I tried being comforting, even letting him sit on my lap a little, nothing. So I tried being a little more stern (which often works), nothing. I tried acting SO EXCITED for all of our activities...which helped a miniscule amount. FYI I tried so hard that now my throat is really sore. It is not easy to be louder than a screaming child without yelling yourself. I'm pretty sure my vocal cords were stretched to places they have never been stretched before today. I talked to mom after and she said this isn't typical. May we all hope and pray again that this is just the first day drama.... or trauma. I think trauma is more fitting.
Through all of that, I am still happy with my choice. I'm extremely grateful to be where I am and the last few days have helped me realize that I am here to make changes to better these children's lives. Things still need to be changed in order to give them the best education I can and I am extremely motivated to do so. I wish I had a personal stenographer inside my head. There are so many things I need to get done and so many ideas that come into my head that I want to implement to help these kids. Hopefully Heavenly Father will have them all cross through my mind over and over again until I can write them down. Hopefully next week will be much better as kids adjust and become accustomed to our routine.
I took some pictures of my classroom before the kiddos came. I made some changes and I'm sure there are many more to be made. Here they are.
Song Board
View from my desk
play area
circle
Reading Corner
Birthdays...don't know what the deal is with December folks.
View by the door
Block area
Not too shabby, but still in the works. I'm excited for this year of tweaking and learning from experience. Hopefully it won't kill me. I love my kids, especially when they are not crying...and can't wait to make a difference in their lives. I'll continue to keep you posted on my many adventures.
Love Jess
