Week 13: Blessed to see on my desk some green and tangerine :)

Monday, April 8

I learned something incredibly valuable today from Christy—use fabric on bulletin boards. Such a simple idea but it is brilliant! She always puts fabric as her backing on the bulletin boards because it holds up better and the holes in the fabric don’t show nearly as much as they do in paper. I absolutely love it. Switching up the bulletin boards is something she’s been doing a lot lately now that she has extra time at school.

This is one thing I really enjoy about Christy. She is extremely laid-back and pretty much just lets me do my thing. She’s constantly moving around the room and going in and out (changing bulletin boards, organizing cabinets, clearing out space, doing laminating) and I really appreciate how much she’s just let me take over. I rarely feel like she’s ever just sitting watching me, and I am thankful for that. My cooperating teacher from CPCS, Elaine, never made me feel awkward either, but she definitely stayed in the room a lot more than Christy does. Elaine did a lot of things sitting at her desk, so though she was never truly just watching me, I felt a little more pressure whereas Christy just does her own thing, allowing me to feel confident in my own teaching. It’s been so great working with Christy!

Tuesday, April 9

Today I had my first official interview and was extremely nervous to say the least. Walking into my classroom this morning, I found a vase of orange tiger lilies from Christy just to wish me good luck; I was so touched. Later on after lunch, I found a card on my desk from the other kindergarten teacher, Dawn, reassuring me that God had this all under control, and that He will make things clear to me and the interviewing committee. I am so floored by how great of a community this school has. It is so encouraging to work with people who really care about you and support you.

Overall, the interview went ok. I would definitely not say it was the best interview, but hopefully it wasn’t the worst either; I wasn’t told a date for when I would hear anything other than ASAP, so now it’s just a waiting game.

Wednesday, April 10

This morning was extremely long and tiring, especially compared to my afternoon class. I had to move 10 stars this morning. The majority was due to talking when I was talking but there were plenty for touching other students, completely not listening to my directions and causing distractions in class. One boy, Nick, frequently moves his star. How the system works is that everybody’s star starts on black; first is a warning, and they move to green. Green is simply a warning so they still get full recess and a sticker at the end of the day. After green is yellow; yellow means half of recess is taken away, and no sticker. Next is red; red means no recess, no sticker. Finally, there’s a black space called “Call Home”.

My dear Nick is a frequent visitor on the call-home slot. He is a sweet boy; he really is; it’s just his mouth gets him in trouble a lot. He is constantly talking and not paying attention. Today he only got onto the red, and when I talked to him at the end of the day about why he was on red, he completely knew why: “Because I talk too much. I’ll try to be quieter, I really will” was his response. He’s a chatterbox for sure, but if that’s the worst problem in my classes, I will absolutely take it.

Thursday, April 11

Today I had a problem with both my morning and afternoon classes with coming back from specials late. It kinda drove me nuts! Both classes came back from gym 5-8 minutes late, and though that may not seem very long, each of those minutes is precious time we could be working on or completing an activity. Feeling frustrated about this, it also caused me to look at things from the PE teacher’s point of view; I know I have sent them to gym late before, and I’m sure she gets just as frustrated with it as I did today. I’m at fault for sometimes thinking, “Well, it’s just computers; if they’re a little late, that’s okay.” That’s completely not true; each special is just as important to the students’ development as the core classes I teach. It was not fun today feeling frustrated and needing to make up that lost time, but it definitely made me think about things from the special teachers’ perspectives.

Friday, April 12

Field trip day today! All three kindergarten classes (my morning and afternoon, and the other kindergarten class) left at 8:30 to head to the Exploration Station in Bourbonnais. Christy and Dawn had enough parents able/willing to come on the field trip so each parent was assigned 2-3 kids. This meant for a lot of people to go on the field trip, but it worked out so well. When we arrived to the Exploration Station, the students were pretty much free to do whatever. They needed to stick with their group, but otherwise, they were able to go around to all the different stations throughout the building. It was my first time here so I had fun exploring what there was too. The building was divided up into multiple little rooms/stations including: Lickety Split Soda Shot, Shop-a-lot Market, Exploralot Castle, Invention Center and places where students could play with Legos, draw, “fix” cars, and climb on airplanes. It was a huge place; I was extremely thankful for all the parents that came! Overall it was a great field trip though where I learned a lot about organization and communication between all parties involved.