My goal (for the next three weeks, before summer school starts) is to relax. As I was leaving school today, I had a mental list of things I wanted to do when I got home and in the next few days. Then I sat down. I'm on the go all the time- I like to be- but sometimes I need to make my self slow down.
I had a quick meeting (my classroom is moving. . . not sure how I feel about it yet. . . I'm being moved to the upstairs, back corner of the school- that's a minus. Special Ed. is getting moved back there with me- that's a plus!) cleaned my room, got brunch with some teachers, and left. At 11:15.
And now I'm home and I feel like I'm forgetting something.
I don't have to plan lessons, I don't have to pack my lunch, I don't have to pick out my outfit for tomorrow, I don't need to worry if we have enough snack for everyone, I don't have to get prizes for the prize box, I don't have to get any materials together. . . it's weird.
I know everyone says this, but I can't believe how fast this year went! At the beginning of they year, I thought it was going to take forever. The start of the year was hard. Multiple people told me they have never seen a group of kids that acted the way my morning class did- and that was not a compliment to them. The kids were all over the place. Their behavior was terrible. Every day on my way to school, I would call Dan and talk about how I hoped the morning would just be okay. Not even good- just okay. Compared to how things usually went, okay was good. After my morning class was over, I could breath a little because my afternoon class was much better. On one of the really hard days, a teacher who helped out in my room sometimes said, "We're going to think about today at the end of the school year and laugh about this." I hoped to god she was right.
It took a couple sets of conferences, a bunch of phone calls home, a suspension or two, daily conversations with parents, and a lot of patience before the morning class finally got into the rhythm of the day (right after winter break- in January). I don't know exactly when, but I switched from hoping for an okay day to planning for a good day.
We were getting things accomplished! Instead of focusing on social skills and barely being able to read a story as a class, they were saying "read it again!". One day last week, we ready five books in a row. They kept asking to read another one, so we did. The same teacher who said we would laugh about the beginning of the year saw me waiting with one of my kids to get picked up. She mentioned how he was doing a great job waiting. This kid quietly walked around with me and chatted while we waited for his grandma to pick him up. At the beginning of the year, he would have yelled and ran around until I grabbed him. And then I would have had to hold his hand so he couldn't get away or because no distraction would have been good enough to keep him busy until he got picked up.
After such a stressful start to the beginning of the year, I'm a little nervous to start next year. We got to such a good place at the end of the year, but I guess that's part of my job. These kids come to me with no school experience, and in many of their lives they have absolutely no structure. Learning structure can be hard.
And now. . . my little 4Kers are ready ready for kindergarten.
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