First day of School...Part Deux

New year, New grade, New students.What isn't there to love about this time of the year? I've decided to keep this blog as a short diary about my daily routine as a teacher instead of what my blog turned into, which was a philosophical look on education. I would rather just remember the fun and horrible things that happen to me each and every day. Let's talk about how this was the worst day EVER! The other 5th grade teachers had the same thought, so it doesn't make me feel nearly as bad about myself. Just a talkative group of kids I suppose. Let me run off a list of horrible things that happened.
- Was supposed to spend a large portion of the day having my kids take some math tests on the computers...computers didn't work.
- Got new computers, they didn't have the program on them so I had to scrap the whole thing.
- As I was trying to frantically put names and passwords into the computer for the tests that we didn't take, I had a kid come to me bleeding from the elbow.
- While I was helping her, another kid farted. YEP...during a silent coloring time.
- Decided to scrap everything we had planned for the last hour of the day to work on policies and procedures. (why didn't we plan to do this for the first 3 days anyway?)
- Had the superintendent and principal pop into the class in the middle of a new math program we had to start today.
- Started a new math program that explains math in a way I don't even understand.
ETC...ETC...ETC...
I'm complaining a lot, but really it was a bad day. Just motivation to come back stronger the next day I suppose. I hope it can only go up from here. Also, decided to drop out of the math endorsement program and we haven't even had our first class yet. I have a feeling it's going to be a long year. I'm super excited for the adventures along the way.
Plan for tomorrow...Have another first day and forget today ever happened.

IT ALL ENDS!!!

It turns out that I'm awful at this blogging thing. I just read my last post and didn't realize how long it had been since I last wrote. The last three months went so quickly. Most of it was just reviewing and testing. In fact, A LOT of it was just testing. During this time we enjoyed some fun events at my school. We had our play day, our swim day, our read-a-thon day, our 4th grade trip to Salt Lake City, the school district mile run, and our yearbook video day.

We also had another up-day. This is the day where we meet our class for the upcoming year. Up until the last day of school I didn't know where and what grade I would be teaching next year. I was on the cutting block to be transferred to another school, but things eventually worked out to where I was able to stay at the same school and teach 5th grade for the next year. This is a job I have wanted for the last 5 years. I would even go as far as saying that it is my dream job.

Up-day was a fun time because I was able to to keep 9 of my 24 kids for the next year. These kids are so great and I hope I can do a better job next year for them. As I sent the other kids to their next year teachers I saw a look of confusion on the remaining faces. One of them asked if they didn't pass the 4th grade and I joked around and said, "Yes." Then I hit them with the news that I was going to be their 5th grade teacher and they seemed relieved. They seemed excited to be with me again, which is a comforting sign for me.

There is a lot I want to talk about, but the post is long enough so I just want to end with two of my favorite scenes from my favorite movie The Shawshank Redemption. As a first year teacher I feel like Andy Dufrane, the show's main character, as he made his escape from prison by crawling through 500 yards of sewage. I had to crawl through policies, procedures, gossiping, backbiting, lesson planning, and federal and state regulations. Unfortunately, I think I will have to crawl through a similar tunnel again this next year as I switch grades and change curriculum. I hope the tunnel is shorter and the smell not as bad, but I hope I learn just as much as I did my first time through.



I don't enjoy the politics in education, but I really do love my students and my classroom. Morgan Freeman, who plays the character Red, said it best. "These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them."