Day Four (and Three)

"The honeymoon's over" -- 4th grade teacher

My co-worker pretty much hit the nail on the head. The students have progressively gotten worse!! Don't get me wrong, they're good kids, they are just a little . . . um . . . talkative. What can you expect? They're 3rd graders!!

Anyway, so on to day Three. (since I didn't get around to posting yesterday) The major change for Wednesday was that I only had one "special". Since this term is new to me too, I'll "enlighten" you. "Specials" at my school are the special schedule given to the elementary. These are times when the students aren't in my classroom. It could be for music, P.E., Art, Library, or Computer. 3 days a week, I have 2 specials (each 1/2 hour long) -- one in the morning, one in the evening. The other 2 days (Wednesday being one of them), I only have one special. My special on Wednesday isn't until after lunch, so I have them all to myself until lunch time. I guess I can't complain -- I've substituted or helped in schools where the teacher has no relief all day long. Anyway, having said all this, Wednesday was a very long morning. We re-arranged the schedule to acommodate some tutoring, but that didn't work out very well at all! Math definately must be one of the first subjects covered in the mornings, or I lose them!

Day Four -- today. They are beginning to run together. Today, my main concerns have been focused on "teacher responsibilities". I have a newsletter I need to get out and lesson plans to have completed and turned in by tomorrow!! I've just barely been treading water this week as it is - now I need to think about next week!!! I'm sure it will work out -- speaking of which -- I have some stuff I brought here to work on and I need to get to that.

As the first of 2 side notes, I got an apartment!!!! The elementary principal helped me find a place close to the school -- and for a reasonable price! I'll post pictures as soon as I have some furniture in there.

The second note is a funny student story. I think it was Wednesday. I was teaching Language class, and one little boy raised his hand. He said, "I just wanted to tell you. I've been timing you since you started teaching Language, and it's been 17 minutes and 22 seconds." I wasn't sure how to take this, so I just said, "Thank you, but you don't need to do that." Later in math class, I let him be in charge of the timer for around-the-world speed drills, but he still used his wristwatch to time me. He hasn't done this anymore since then, but I just thought it was so funny, I just had to say something.

Until tomorrow . . . or until I have more spare time :S