Enjoying the break!

One week down and one to go on the holiday break. I have done more than I thought I would but know that I will still not be ready to go back when school resumes. Things have been very busy since my last post. I am finally feeling a lot better, had a birthday, celebrated 3 different Christmases with family, and have spent a lot of the time cleaning around our house.

The return to school is partially stressful because of problems with my principal. She came in to talk to me on the Monday before school got out and informed me that I just don't seem to be teaching the same as I have in the past. This year our district has gone to a new curriculum that we are to follow almost to the letter (even though we were told we could vary it some in the beginning). As I have mentioned before, I have had a revolving door class this year. At last count I have taught a total of 28 different kids this year. My class is currently at 19 students but only after removing a major problem child from my classroom. I am hoping that things will be better after she gets a break as well. I know my students need more help than I can give on my own. Maybe now that she sees the way things are, I will get more of the help that I need.

I am excited for my class to start on the 20th. I will spend 4 days on campus for the class and know that will keep me busy. Maybe I will get to meet some new people who live nearby and make a few new friends. More to come soon about this.

Settling down

As of Monday my class has begun to settle down and act normal again. The principal finally removed one of the boys in the class who was causing a lot of the sexual innuendo going on in the room. Things were great all day Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday things got a little shaky at the end of the day when students started reporting to me that there were 3 students calling me the "B" word. I started some questioning and found out that at least 2 of them were really using the word. My principal doesn't want to do anything other than suggest I discuss with my class our Social Contract again. We did after students wanted to tattle today to let me know another student was calling me stupid. Hopefully the seriously bad language will end and the tattling will end. I am trying to put it back on the kids and remind them that we want kindness, honesty, and respect in the classroom for everyone and from everyone. We decided that students should try talking to each other and reminding them that we need to use positive words and that they don't like it when those other words are used. We will just have to see if tomorrow is any better.

On another note, the late and missing work from the kids just may kill me. I seem to constantly be asking for the work and being told they will have it tomorrow. I guess with all of the failing grades last six weeks and the same ones headed that direction this six weeks the parents will be in for a rude awakening. It is very hard to pass for the school year if they have 2 six weeks of failing grades. Once again we will just have to see what happens.

New Addiction

Starbucks will be the death of my checking account. I went by on Saturday night to get a hot chocolate since the weather was cold. I figured I'll just go through the drive thru and make it a quick trip. After I ordered the "kid" (I really don't know how old he was) at the window asked why I was dissing the Special Hot Chocolate. I told him I didn't know anything about it and he filled me in. He then said I can always ask for a sampling of anything on the drink menu to find out if I like it. He insisted I try the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate which is his favorite. He quickly made one up for me to try. By the way the sample size looks like the size a child might have. He gave me the sample and I tried it. I have now been back twice for more!! I hate when I get addicted to something especially when it costs almost $4 a pop. Oh well, hopefully I won't have too many of them or else I really will go broke.

End of semester nears!!

As the end of the semester nears I realize that I almost bit off more than I could chew this semester. At least I have nearly finished with all of my assignments. I have 2 papers to write for one class, 1 reading and post over a discussion in another class, and the class discussion over our journals for my other class. I think if I hadn't had pneumonia I wouldn't have felt so overwhelmed at the very end of the classes. If I make at least a B in all the classes I will be fine. I expect to get at least one A just because the class is easy and 1 credit hour. The other 2 are the ones that I am hovering between A or B so all I can do is hope for the best with my last few assignments.

SICK!!!

I hate being sick. I spent all of yesterday asleep and then at the doctors office. They called this morning and told me I have the beginnings of pneumonia. I am not allowed to return to school until Monday. Luckily the other teachers have been wonderful and are covering everything for me. I guess I am lucky that none of my school work is due this week. I am suppose to go to the middle school and give a book talk which means I will have to take another half day off. In all my years of teaching, I have never missed so many days of school. The sad thing is I don't even miss the kids. They had me so frustrated on Monday and I just wanted to get out of there. Maybe it was the beginnings of getting sick but who knows.

Long Weekend Bummer

I decided to make this a long weekend and take off Friday and Monday from school. I thought I would be very productive and get a lot of course work done plus do a few things around the house. It is now Sunday night and I have done nothing around the house.

On Friday, I went with my mom and voted. After that I spent the day getting my 9 journal articles completed since they were due at 11:59 p.m. I managed to finish at 11:09 p.m. I love this teacher because she has already graded it and I got a 94!

On Saturday, I started feeling bad and spent most of the day sleeping. I guess that is what I get for putting things off. Everything seems to hit me at once. I think it is my allergies/sinuses that are bothering me again but who knows it may be a cold again.

Today, Sunday, I worked on my paper that I thought I had another week to complete but just figured out is due on Tuesday. I also wrote my lesson plan for my storytime activity with the prek class. I am doing that tomorrow morning and am very nervous. I have never taught a group of 4 and 5 year olds before. The closest I have ever been were the 2 days I substituted for kindergarten and that was about 7 years ago!! I know the kids will be great though because the teacher is really good and she has helped me a lot with the lesson.

Tomorrow ends my days off and I don't think I will have one minute of downtime. After the lesson, I have to take my vehicle to the dealership because I have a screw in my right rear tire! I have only had the vehicle for 3 months and already I am having issues. At least it is covered under my warranty. After that will be the many errands that must be done and then my dentist appointment. Not to mention all the laundry, grading, and other classwork I need to get done. Oh well, at least I am a little closer to the end of the semester.

Hopefully, it won't be so long before I post again.

Budgeting my time

I am really learning how to budget my time. It is taking me awhile to get into the groove with 3 courses and a full time teaching job, but I think I am slowly getting the hang of it. I think I may have to give up TV in order to get more done but hopefully I won't have to. This weekend I spent over 8 hours grading papers. I have decided that waiting until the weekend to grade won't work anymore. I am going to have to grade a little every night. I am making a schedule of the work I need to do and when the due dates are. Hopefully in the future I won't have to work right up to the last minute to get assignments in on time.

Stress, Stress, Stress

The stress of everything is really starting to hit me. I took today off of school so I can work on course work. I finally finished the textbook just as the professor extended the quiz deadline. At least I know I have one thing done for the course. My other course has our first paper due tomorrow before midnight. I might have it done in time if I can find where I put the budget for our school library. Every time I think I have all of my papers in one place, one of the papers turns up missing. I know this paper has already been extended, but I do love to procrastinate. Well, I guess I've goofed off enough for now back to the grindstone.

Climbing and climbing in numbers

My class count is finally climbing so that I am close in number to the rest of 4th grade. I had two new students added within 2 hours today!! This is a little insane, but it does save on repeating the same information over and over again to the new students. My class is turning into a bunch of chatter boxes. I keep hoping that it will improve, but even with taking away privileges, they just keep talking.

At least my grad work is starting to not seem so overwhelming. It is still a lot of work, and I may not take 2 classes at the same time again while school is in session (this will mean that it takes longer to graduate). If I survive this I may just take a chance again!!

Back to the grind of grading papers!

New Vehicle

YEA!!!!! I have purchased my very first brand new vehicle. I finally gave up on the Buick when it started breaking down on the way home from school on Thursday. I went shopping over the weekend and purchased my Equinox on Monday. It is a 2008 and has soooooo many features I could never dream of on my old piece of junk. I love the fact that it has remote start! All I have to do is push the button and the car starts without me in it. This is sooooooooooooooo wonderful when the heat of Texas just about kills you. The air turns on and once I put the key in the ignition the radio and everything else comes on as normal. The only disappointing thing is I have to take it in overnight later this week so they can fix 2 problems with the paint. Oh well, at least I now know I won't have to worry if my car will start from on day to the next. I will post a picture of it later this week.

PANIC

Well, I just may end up in a straight jacket before the end of the semester. I have spent the evening posting my opening messages for classes and reading other posts. I then went to the syllabus of each class. This is when the panic attack started. I will have to read about 100 different children's books in just a few short months. I know I have read some of them but the majority of them are ones I've never heard of (and it takes a lot for a good book to get by me). Then I noticed my other class will require 5 15 page papers!!!! What are they thinking. There are over 100 of us in this class. Do they really think they can read all of them. Even if there is more than one instructor, it will take awhile to get through them. I hope this doesn't turn into the same situation as my summer class where I didn't know my grade for the different assignments until right before the final (2 of the grades were posted after I finished and submitted my final). I really hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

Nerves

My nerves are starting to kick in. School starts tomorrow and I'm always nervous before really getting to know the kids. My classes will also start tomorrow. I already know what has to be done for my introduction class, but I am still waiting to find out about the others. Hopefully 7 hours of classes won't be too much.

For the first day of school our principal wants us to start with curriculum right away. We tried reminding her that rules and procedures must be taught and gone over before you can begin teaching but she has her mind set on us starting right away. I put in my lesson plans that I was starting tomorrow but in reality it will probably be late that day or the next before I truly begin. Let's hope that all goes well with the new group of kids.

Tough Day

Well, today was the last day of inservice before school starts. We started out together in the cafeteria to discuss a few things. We were all anxious to get to work in our rooms when our principal once again said, "We must be RECOGNIZED" this year." Well, needless to say this set everyone off. Mary (another teacher in 4th grade) sent an email to our principal about the comment. She came down and lectured us yet again. I now know this HAS TO BE my last year teaching 4th grade and the year hasn't even started yet. There is just too much stress with the TAKS test hanging over my head all the time. I was so much more excited before today happened. Hopefully next week will go well.

Well...I put this off long enough

I finally started a blog (other than Myspace). I have read others blogs for awhile while putting this off.

I am soooo not ready to start back to school next week and have the kids back the next week. Things are about to get super busy with teaching and going to school at the same time. I hope that everything is going to go the way I plan (A's in as many 0f my classes as possible). Classes officially start on the 25th but I will have to go to Denton all day on the 23rd for my first class. This is supposed to be a group project class. Please let me get a good group of people who all plan to put forth effort!

The olympics are keeping me up later and later each night. I am really going to have to start turning the TV off and just going to bed. It's so hard when my favorite sports (swimming, diving, gymnastics) have been on so late at night.