Time to Breath

I never thought I would be happy to say that my school started before Labor Day, but it worked out great.

I am finished with my first two weeks of teaching, which are getting a little bit better compared to day one, but still not too great. In teaching, there are "good days" and "bad days," "good classes" and "bad classes," I am just hoping I can continue to have them all shifting more towards the positive. It seems as if it only takes one student to dismantle a classroom that is seemingly going perfect... as I become a better teacher, I hope this isn't always the case.

It was great to have the extra day this weekend. I was able to get some of the paper work that has been piling up on my desk at home sorted out. I am taking night classes at the University of St. Thomas in Houston on Tuesday nights and have to take an Alternative Certification Program (ACP) course on Monday nights so I had all kinds of information from both of them. My week is pretty full between school, St. Thomas graduate classes, the ACP program, and random Teach For America (TFA) events/workshops.

I still don't feel like I have a very good system down for managing all of my work, but hopefully, over time, I will be able to organize everything so I can be efficient and effective with my time. I am sure many of you have noticed that I have not been keeping up with my blogging, but that is mainly due to my inability to manage my workload right now.

Well, I have to get back to planning for the rest of the day. It is 9:15 and I have already been at school for about 3 hours. I got here a little earlier today to try and get organized for the week. At 7:30am I ate breakfast with my preschoolers (PK) class. We ate and then sang a few songs before their homeroom teacher picked them up at 8:15am. That is the only time I see PK now during the day.

Our schedule has been adjusted so they have "science" at the same time they are eating breakfast. Today I taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" to help them learn the parts of the body. We sang in both English and Spanish. Thanks to two years in Mrs. Entzi's Spanish class I was able to teach them in both languages without any problems. I think the other teachers were pretty impressed since they know I don't know any Spanish... haha

Back to work... 5 classes left to teach today, and then class tonight. I should be home around 8:30pm.

Take care,
- Joe