Day 52 - The World is a Rainbow!

I originally came up with the title for this blog last week, when the world was bright and I was feeling optimistic.

It's not that I'm not optimistic anymore, but today the students somehow realized how little school is left. They were chattier than usual, they weren't listening to my directions very well, and they were forgetting some of our every-day routines. It was so frustrating.

I probably haven't really raised my voice in a week or two, compared to an almost every day occurrence when I first stepped into the classroom. Today, I not only raised my voice, it became a scream. I love my class, really enjoy them, but there are a few students who just get on my nerves and after dealing with the same behavior day in and day out, my tolerance level gets smaller and smaller.

On a positive note, I am really connecting with a student of mine who was almost robotic when I first started in the classroom. She rarely spoke, rarely paid attention in class, and never raised her hand to participate. She could have almost gone unnoticed except for the fact that she is the tallest student in the class. She has always been respectful, but I learned last week that she is also hilarious. Some of the things that she says are weird, but she can crack me up like no one else. And she does it with such ease. When the day feels long or I'm frustrated, I just turn to her to bring a smile to my face.

There's another reason that this student makes me so happy. She is a perfect example of how one teacher can make a difference. In March, she really couldn't participate in much. She couldn't read much of anything, even the word "the" and could barely do addition. Now, she's sounding out words, reading simple sentences, and has this skill for mathematics. She is happy and participating and becoming successful. Granted, she is nowhere near ready for second grade and may have a learning disability, but she has come so far in such a short period of time.

On tough days, I look at the students who are growing, both physically and academically. I really am wowed by my class these days, even if some of them are driving me up the wall.

Last week, to celebrate the end of our healthy living unit, I brought a healthy snack to share with the kids.

They were really into learning about the different food groups and talking about different foods that they eat, so I spent my own money (which didn't end up being all that much for 23 students) and bought some snack foods.

I brought one food from each group: apples, string cheese, lunch meat, carrots, cheese its, and chocolate pudding. We talked about where the food groups fit in and then we ate slowly, enjoying the food.

Some of the kids told me that I was the best teacher ever and others talked about how good the food was. A few students even asked me where I bought everything and I was happy to say that I got everything at a local grocery store and that they could tell their parents to buy them the very same foods.

The aftermath of our snack has been great. One student brought graham crackers and pretzels for snack yesterday and another asked her mom if she could bring a pasta salad. I love that the kids are so into being healthy and sharing food with the class.

The positives are definitely outweighing the negatives, I'm excited for the end of the year, but also sad that my time with this class is almost up.
15 more days left...

Day 43 - Teacher Appreciation

I can't believe it's been so long since my last entry. It's been busy and the end of the year is near, so I just don't have as much energy as I did a couple of months ago.

Last week was teacher appreciation week and I was just overwhelmed by the gifts that my students and their families brought me. It's so hard when I don't speak much Spanish and they don't speak much English, I wish that I could communicate better and have a stronger relationship with my students' parents. I guess I realized last week that they really appreciate what I'm doing.

Also, last week, while in a meeting with a parent, I learned that one of my students is now excited to go to school every morning. With the first teacher that he had, it was hard to get him out of bed and to school, and now as he and his mother walk to school he is excited and wants to pick flowers to bring to me. It brought the mom to tears telling the story and I just about lost it too. I really like my class and it's so uplifting to know that I am making a difference in their lives. 

As we come to the end of the year, the exhaustion hits all of us. The kids are more antsy and I just don't have the same pep that I had when I first took over the class. One of my students told me today that they stay home when they are sick, but teachers still have to come to work. I countered her statement by saying that sometimes even teachers have to stay home.                                                   

I have wanted to work every single day until the end of the year because I know that my students are traumatized by having had too many substitutes this year, but I definitely feel like I'm getting sick again and a mental health day/day of rest is needed.

While I feel very stressed, I am also focusing on all the positive aspects that are happening in my class. Students aren't struggling quite as much, they are being nicer to each other, and they are way more motivated than they were when I first came into the classroom.

Two positive things to note from today are: two students made up their own sorting activity based on a similar activity that I showed them yesterday. We are learning about farms and we sorted animals and vegetables yesterday. We talked about how they were alike and different, so today during independent work time, these students put the cards face down, so only the words showed. One student held up either the card that said animal or the card that said vegetable and the other student had to find a card that matched that category. It was just beautiful to watch.

Another positive thing happened after our math lesson. I've been using manipulatives a lot more lately and we are working with place value, which is not easy. We used groups of ten and ones and they got all mixed up in their individual bags. Three students decided to organize each of the bags for me (I didn't even have to ask them to do this or show them how it was done). They knew that 10 sticks went in each bag for the groups of ten and that 20 of the one's cubes went in the smaller bag. I really appreciate when students have this innate ability to keep things organized and to help out our classroom.

I just can't wait to see these kids in 10 years!!!