Phew!

3 weeks are down and I can't believe it!!
The best news is that today we finally got Internet at our house and it makes life so much easier! And more updates for you all :)

It has been, obviously, a crazy last few weeks. The kids have had a bunch of days off for holidays and grading days. Here are some bulletpoints of my last few weeks!

• I gave my pre-assessment for place value, for the main unit I'm teaching. On Wednesday my unit officially starts.
• I talked with my CT today and clarified what parts I would officially be taking over and I wanted to be the head honcho, or if I still wanted to kind of partner teach with her, or have her assist me sometimes. Starting Wednesday (no school Monday, class on Tuesdays) I'll be taking over the morning routine with breakfast, calendar, large reading time, leading my reading small group(s), the intermediate ELD group (about 8 Spanish speakers, a few English speakers), and math time.
• I had to deal with some "mean girl" conflict the other day. One of my ELL girls, she's pretty shy and quiet, always comes up to me telling who picked on her and what they said. It's not really my favorite but I feel confident doing it now. I also had to have a talk with two fourth-ish grade boys in the gym when they were lined up for the buses, when one of them flipped the other off. Geez!
• One day I was helping a kid with math and a ton of them were swarming around me needing help. I made them go sit down, and one girl, who's always clinging on to me, says "I think everyone's going to you because you're the prettiest girl in the room." Ha!
• One time a few days ago it was really difficult trying to get everyone's attention and
• Most every day I ask myself if I can quit......it's so overwhelming at most of the times! I hate waking up early...planning things in advance...writing the dang work sample...talking with so many people every day....but I think it will be worth it when I have my own classroom! :)
• Went to the school today to help with grading. Got to enter a bunch of grades into the system. Was kinda fun! :)
• The other day their Spanish teacher pulled me out of the class to watch her kids (my other half) and so I started talking in Spanish to them. Many of them looked shocked, and were whispering and laughing, it was pretty funny. They were saying "Djou espeak Espanish?" and "I didn't know you could speak Spanish!" Haha.
• Fancy pants are a lot comfier than jeans....just sayin'.
• The other, English-only first grade teacher is really encouraging to me, and I found out yesterday she is a Christian. She pulled me into the hall yesterday after school was out and reminded me not to internalize everything when you're having a bad day, to use the other teachers for sounding boards. And that you'll have bad days, but 80% of them are good. This was right after I had my worst day!
• I can't wait to start getting into the fun part of teaching! Trying to focus on the joy of what I am doing instead of all the tedious work.
• My Spanish convo class continues to be fun, last week when I told them it was time to go they all wanted to stay to play one more round of the game! Haha..
• I am getting my old laptop back tomorrow, so I have a backup if mine collapses again!

Well, I'm going to eat some of my chocolate chip cookies now, and do some more work, so ta ta for now!
S