Really?

Dear Air Force,

I am not sure what was going on with your planes at 2:30 in the morning, but I did not like it.  I do not live on base, yet I felt like I was sleeping on the flight line.  My house shook. My dresser rattled.  If you have to rev up your engines on your jets for some real reason (and I'm sure there is one) that is fine.  Totally understandable.  But 2:30 in the morning?  Really?  I was trying to sleep.  Without my sleep, I become one very cranky kindergarten teacher.  

Thank you!

Saying Goodbye

I found out Friday that the little boy who told me my clouds were stupid and that decided to give himself a haircut will be going to another school.  If you had told me 8 weeks ago that he would only be in my room 8 weeks, I probably would have been happy.  But, I am honestly very sad.  In fact, when he looked at me yesterday afternoon and said, "Mrs. J, I am going to miss you," it brought a tear to my eye. 

Yes, we had our difficulties, but we had our celebrations too.  He had learned 13 letters since the year started.  He enjoyed learning.  He hugged me in the mornings when he saw me.  He was able to sit still and not bother others (most of the time).  He finally had some consistency in his life that has no consistency. Instead of calling himself stupid like he once had, he now considered himself smart.  He believed in himself.

God brought this child into my classroom and my life to remind me why I do what I do.

Things are looking up!

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how I was discouraged because I Ididn't feel like I was doing a good job at teaching my kids and I was really taking it hard.  While I still have so much to learn about teaching kindergarten, I am realizing that I am making a difference.  Here's what I've seen so far...
~Almost all of my kids know atleast 5 more letters than they knew 4 weeks ago when I assessed them.  They are learning!  I'm teaching them!  Only 5 of my kids know less than 16 of the letters now!  It was 10 before.
~Most of my kids can read 3-8 sight words!  They can even read them when I put them together to make a sentence.
~They can tell me what letter many words start with.  They are beginning to write sentences with beginning letters!
~And they must think I'm doing something great because they are always giving me hugs and sometimes I even get a kiss.  They got excited today when I walked in after being at a training all morning. 

My confidence is growing.  Still don't feel like I'm at the top of my game, but I'll get there.  Thanks again for your support! 

What I'm Up To

With Anthony's job, I spend one day a weekend at home by myself every weekend.  At first, this was hard, but I've grown to love my WHOLE day to myself. 

So far today, I've...
-Got new fall scented Bath and Body Works plugins.  And a "Leaves" candle.  It smells amazing.  I highly suggested getting either a candle or plugin in "Leaves."  It's kind of a cinnamon/pumpkin/fall spice scent.  I'm loving it.
-Picked up a pair of tights that Target had on sale.  They only had one pair in my size and I found it hiding among another style of tights.  I was so excited!
-Bought the ingredients for Anthony's cake.  When I wasn't working, I made some kind of sweet every week.  Now he expects it.  This week he wanted strawberry cake.
-Gone to the BX to pick up some Clinique stuff that I needed.
-Eaten delish leftover potato soup that I made when I was sick.

Now I have to...
-Make the above mentioned cake.
-Place my new plugins around the house!
-Take my boxer for a walk because Anthony is convinced that I hate the dog because I don't like to do anything with him.  He's also convinced that if I would exercise I wouldn't get sick all the time.  So, I'm knocking out two birds with one stone.
-Prepare for parent conferences this week.
-Enjoy all my favorite TV shows on ABC. 
-Slice my fruit to take in my lunches this week.  All the teachers bring fresh fruit in their lunches, and my little fruit cups just don't prepare.  So, I bought peaches, strawberries, and rasberries for the week.  I'm thinking I'll get it all ready today so I don't have to do anything to it during the week.

Only in Kindergarten...

Only in a kindergarten classroom...

...does a kid put a pencil in the classroom toilet.  And then another kid offer to get it out.  Eww!


...I am called Mom or Mommy.

...do we sing a song about everything.  I sing about opening backpacks, colors, lining up, going home, going to the bathroom, washing your hands...and the list goes on.  There's even a song called "Who Let the Letters Out?"

...kids bring hand sanitizer, but don't understand that it's for everyone, not just them.

...kids have wrestling matches in my library.  Daily.  When do boys stop fighting/hitting/kicking/tackling?

And thanks for the encouraging words.  I know things will get better with time.  They've even started to get better.  My trouble lies in accepting that fact that I'm not going to be perfect good at everything right away.

I'm My Own Worst Enemy

I've heard the whole thing about being your own worst enemy and never really thought about it.  Until today.  It became real.  I'm having a hard time with teaching kindergarten.  I'm not really loving it.  I know part of it is that it's hard for me to adjust to working with 5 year olds.  But I knew there was more to it than that.  I just couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me.

I absolutely HATE that I am not good at what I am doing.  I was not the best teacher, but I was really pretty good at teaching second grade.  My kids made lots of progress.  They were almost always on task.  They listened to me.  I really was confident in myself as a teacher.  Well, not any more.  I have no confidence in myself right now as a kindergarten teacher.  And that, for me, is very hard.  I am very critical of myself.  Quite a perfectionist actually.  And now that I am not good at something and it's something I can't just quit doing (like all sports) I don't like it!  At all!

I realize it will get better.  And I realize that with time that hopefully my students will listen to me and do what I ask.  And I know that the more I teach kindergarten the more confident I will be. 

But right now, I'm not liking myself.  I'm not liking not being good at teaching my students.  And it's getting to me.

What I Learned in Kindergarten

Here's the kind of day I had.

It's okay to punch someone, as long as you tell them you are sorry right after.

When hot and cold mix, then there's a tornado.  (I thought that one was pretty smart.)

Tomorrow is Friday.  Tomorrow is also Sunday, as well as Thursday and Monday.  (Eventually we got that tomorrow really is Wednesday.  Even though we sing a days of the week song EVERY day they still don't get it.)

The library in the classroom doubles as a wrestling ring.

And, for the record, kindergarteners do not make you feel better when you are scared of storms.  I spent 15 minutes convincing them there wasn't going to be a tornado.  Then having to explain what to do if there was a tornado.  And by the way, I'm absolutely TERRIFIED of storms!

Germies!

One of the things that drives me crazy about teaching is the germs! I thought 7 year olds were bad. Ha! 5 years spread even more germs and don't wash their hands enough. Or use Kleenex. And they pick their noses! EWWWWW! Well, there's lots of stuff going around right now. And I thought I had caught it. But I think I'm safe so far.

It all started about a month and a half ago, before I was back in the classroom. I had an awful sinus infection. I went to the doctor, got a few medicines and was on my way. It got a little better, but never went away. Then, a week into teaching, my body stopped fighting and it go worse. I called my old ENT back home and got more medicine. Something different. It helped a little, but it still wasn't gone. But the pain was minimal, so I dealt with it. Well, Wednesday, I started feeling awful. I was achy. I was whiney. My face was in pain. My eardrums felt like the were going to explode. I went to work that day b/c I was just in training. But my symptoms just got worse. So, I got a sub for Thursday and stayed home to rest and let my body fight off all the extra germs.

I was able to get in to see a new ENT out here. He looked around with a camera, attached to a tv...I so did not want to see inside my nose. Then sent me to the hospital to sit and wait forever get a CT scan.  I go back next week to find out the results.  I'm a little afraid he will want to do another surgery (I've already had 2 sinus surgeries).  But maybe not.  This is one time that I am truly grateful to have TriCare.  I've gone through this process before with regular insurance and it was awful.  I don't really care what he decides to do, I just want to feel better.  This sinus infection is driving me crazy!

Today I am feeling better though.  I was able to go to work.  Hopefully after a weekend of laying on the couch I will be all better.