Lesson Seven: TEACHERS WEAR MANY HATS

Dear world,

I want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to my mom for putting up with my daily stressed-out phone calls where I say “SOS I need more ideas!” Thank you to the teachers that check on me daily, send me every resource I could possibly need for the year, and give me hugs on those days where I am about to fall apart. And thank you to the many friends and family members I call every day in order to try and get a little bit of social time in outside of work and sleep. Teaching is hard, but I am forever grateful for the incredible people in my life that are helping me stay (somewhat) sane right now.

Now let me tell you all about my first week of school! For starters, my students are absolutely adorable and I love them all already. They keep me laughing all day long and it makes my job so much more fun. One girl in my class, when asked if she did anything fun yesterday, replied “I took a bubble bath!” and proceeded to go off on a tangent all about her bubble bath, then finished her story with “oh yeah and I guess I had a water balloon fight yesterday too…” as though it was not nearly as exciting as her bubble bath. Another kid decided that instead of putting glue on a piece of paper as I asked, he would rub it all over his hand and arm so that it looked purple. Then today, I had a student roll up a dirty tissue and hand it to me saying “I made you a roll to eat!” The excited look on his face showed me that he truly did mean it to be a thoughtful gift.

This first week we finally started getting into regular routines. Every morning I have students come in and sit on the rug while we do calendar, followed by a confidence cheer where the kids shout:

Let me tell you, it is just about the cutest thing ever. We have started learning about coins, number lines, how to pick out “just right” books and how to write an awesome narrative story. Classdojo has begun where students get to earn points to get prizes throughout the year and they are absolutely loving that. We played games, danced (a lot), and learned all about how to be a well-behaved second grader. 

Through this I learned that my students are insanely smart (over half of my class is already above grade level!), most students have been outside the country despite the fact that they are only seven, and Zuca backpacks are what all the cool kids are buying. I’m pretty sure they are just backpacks with wheels but these kiddos are obsessed. Oh and foursquare is taken extremely seriously here. I have to resolve conflict daily due to frustrations that come from the courts. This first year of teaching has become much more than helping kids learn academics and it is only week one. So far I have gotten to be their nurse, their psychologist, their mom and their friend on top of my role as a teacher. I feel lucky to be able to influence children in so many ways, but man oh man do I need a nap. Labor Day weekend cannot come fast enough! With that said, I am trying to keep a positive attitude just as I teach my students to do every day. I can do this!!!