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Figuring It Out



Last night I got a call from Tony after he had taken a nap. His spirits were up even though he still had nowhere to live. There is something to be said for the healing that sleep can bring. Not only sleep, but a wonderful first day of work. It is his story as to how it is going in New England, but it did my heart good today to hear how he is clicking with everyone there. He still has not found a place to live and we do not yet know if Sana will be accepted into the school. However, we believe it will all work out the way it is meant to.

Patti started school in North Carolina today! She goes to the same school I teach at. Much to her chagrin, I am not her teacher this year. However, she is making many friends and seems to be happy for the most part. We learned today that one of my students lives just a couple of houses down from us. She has someone to hang out with. This is a good thing because Patti is not used to being an only child. She has always had someone to play with. I do not make a very good playmate. (An area I need to work on for sure.) In the meantime, we are both learning to adjust to our new living situation.

I love planning lessons and finding fun ways to present information to the students. So much so, that I have been saving materials for the last 17 years. When planning a unit, I have resources and books to draw on and to adapt for the class I am working with. My greatest challenge here in the classroom is not the students or even the testing. It is not having my resources. I have no books to draw from. No stories to copy and use to teach a concept. I am a first year teacher all over again developing my library of tricks. Over the weekend, I did not get the planning done that I needed to. What I did get done, I emailed to myself at school. Only to find I couldn’t get into it. (I am happy to say, 30 minutes later I was finally able to do what needed to be done – make copies.) After almost 10 years of having technology at my fingertips, it is no longer available to me as readily. And when it is, it has been giving me trouble. I was finally able to do my thing with the students and get myself to my prep period. I had 90 minutes to get some work done.

First on my list of priorities was to contact one of my students that has not been in school the last few days. (She announced to the class on the first day of school that she was on probation for skipping school so much last year.) Every number I have for her has been disconnected. When I asked around about how I could reach her, I was told this was not uncommon for her and she was a girl with attitude. What I had seen the first couple of days of school was a girl with leadership. An intelligent young lady. Now, to figure out a way to get her to school. I never was able to get in contact with her, but I will be trying again tomorrow if she is not in school. She has spunk. I want to help her learn to redirect it in a more positive way.

All teaching here is done to the test. EOG (End of Grade) tests are talked about on a daily basis. Talking to another teacher, she told me that’s just the way it is. As of yet, I have not been told I have to teach in a particular way. Until then, I will do what I do – build students’ confidence in their writing ability and teach them to enjoy reading. Through both of those activities, I will teach them to think. I will do this using the term EOG less then five times during the school year. With any luck they will understand school is about the joy of learning and not the pain of preparing for a test.

My test revolves around soccer coaching. Today it was good to find out that I am not the only sucker. Today, one of my colleagues offered to help me with coaching. “Only thing is,” he said. “I don’t know the first thing about soccer.” What a good sport! We began practice running with the boys. I knew enough to bring my running clothes. He was in a long-sleeve, black shirt in 90 degree heat. The boys were amazing and a lot of fun. My team (that sounds so funny) has some incredible talent. I am looking forward to working with them and watching them grow. Practice over we hung around and waited for parents to show up.

Patti and I finally made it home at 7pm. By the time supper and dishes were done, it was 8pm before I started working on my lesson plans. Some how, some way, I need to find a way to make this work better. My day began at school at 7am. It is now 11pm and I am just now getting ready to head to bed. There has been little to no down time in my day. I must figure a way to get some if I am going to stay sane. Gym membership here I come.

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