My first week of school
Alright, here's the low-down of my first week of school.
Monday: Got up at 3:45am to take Adam to the airport. Got back home at 4:45am, and proceeded to walk to my bedroom for another hour of sleep (without saying good morning to the godparents before heading back for sleep). Woke up, tried pressing snooze, but my nerves got the better of me. I bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom before I charfed all over my bed. Never a good thing. I sat there heaving for a bit (sorry, it's so graphic...it's what I do when I'm really nervous, and this hasn't happened to me in years...like, since freshman year at SNC), and then eventually headed into the shower. Got out of the shower, did my hair and make-up, and headed out to make my lunch. My godmother was very thoughtful and made sure I had enough to take to school. I think a sandwich, yogurt (which she had stocked up on for me), carrot sticks and an apple were going to be good enough for my half hour lunch. Before I left for the day, she made sure to take a picture of me on my first day of school. I'll post it when I either a.) get my computer up and connected to the internet, or b.) when I go home for Christmas. On the way to school I had to find the right station for driving to work. I didn't mind listening to Z104 when I was home (I know, I hated Connie and Fish, but I didn't mind the talk in the morning mixed with some good music), but I had to find something like that to listen to. I finally got to school (it's a good 30-40 minute drive), and walked into the office to meet the assistant principal and the principal. The assistant principal walked me down to my room and was pointing out different things to me. There's a nice courtyard in the middle of school that I can use to teach lessons in. I think that's where they keep the school desert tortoise. We got into my room, and then proceeded to look for my lesson plan the sub left. Yep, definitely didn't leave a plan for me. I got to fly by the seat of my pants. Luckily the sub was in the building, so she walked down to my room and wrote down what pages the kids were at in their workbooks. Not in their reading books or anything else that's important, but their workbooks. The kids were really unruly, but that's ok since I was new, and they were used to the sub. I knew I had to stand my ground with them since I was establishing new rules and a new way of ruling for them. I was ready for someone to say, "well that's not how our last teacher did it...", but I didn't hear that. I had to leave early from school the first day to go to the "Ed Shed" to fill out all of my paperwork and sign my contract. I had to get fingerprinted...again. While I was filling out my paperwork, I dozed off. I knew teaching was exhausting from when I was student teaching, but this is ridiculous! All I wanted to do was go home to bed. It took me a good 45-60 minutes to get home, when it should only take me about 20-25 minutes. I had to call mom when I got done, and that wasn't too good. Let's look at this equation: Tired Kristy+ annoying mom+Las Vegas traffic (which is worse than Milwaukee traffic, and maybe a bit more than the Chicago traffic I've endured). That's not a good combination. Mom can be good to talk to for about 15 minutes, then she brings up the stuff that you don't really want to talk about at the moment. For example, she asked me when I was going to find an apartment. Well, let's see, I still have to do lesson plans for Tuesday and Wednesday, let me get on that as soon as I get home. I ended up falling asleep while planning, and heading into bed at about 9pm. It felt good to sleep, and I ended up getting about 9 hours of sleep that night.
Tuesday: Got up at 6:15, followed same routine as day before. Called mom on the way to school. Got to school, set up lessons...and then got a quick tutorial on my computer about the district email and software. Kids were a little bit better. I was able to engage them in an hour long lesson. I had only planned on 25 minutes, but let them run with it. As the activity was running down, the principal walked in and (had to ask my name) wanted to introduce me to the superintendent. They walked around my room (the principal told some kids they couldn't do what I had told them to do), and left. I didn't get to meet the superintendent. Later on in the day, I think it was during math, I heard one of my kids start singing, "She's got me spending...Ooo, spending all your money on me, on, on me..." I didn't think anything of it, other than J would be proud of this kid, since he wasn't singing the bad parts. Then I heard, "Whatcha gonna do with all them breasts, all them breasts inside your chest?" That's when I whipped around and told him that was inappropriate. As soon as I turned my back he was singing, "To the windoooowwwws, to the walls." Oh hell no, Miss Phipps doesn't play that game. It took all I had to not laugh at him though. He was having a good time. Got done with the day, headed out of school at 4:15. Went home, ate dinner, watched some sort of sporting event (which is all we watch here), played online, and went to bed. Oh! But at school, I saw a teacher bundled up in a turtleneck sweater and a jacket to pick up her kids from lunch recess at noon when it was about 70 degrees out. I thought everyone back home would love to know that one!
Wednesday: Same morning ritual. Decided to fit in with everyone and wore a long sleeved shirt. Met the kids outside, and realized the trouble makers were not here for the day! It made the day so much more bearable. I only had 11 kids in class that day. They went to a play put on by another 2nd grade class, and they were the best behaved kids! I was so proud of them!!! We came back and did a Thanksgiving activity that the kids were so into! I had to have them clean up before finishing since it was the end of the day already. It was such a better day than the rest of the week. Tried getting out of school before 4pm, but was stopped by the grade level chair to discuss the testing that is going on this week, and a few other things before she left for track break. I was able to get out by 4 though. As I was walking out of the building, the assistant principal was walking out too. She wished me a Happy Thanksgiving, and made a comment about all of the books I was carrying out (I had all of my teacher manuals for their texts, along with their journals to grade). I made a comment about how much fun the 4 day weekend was going to be. She turned to me and said, "Well, you have to do it.", but it wasn't in a sarcastic way, more of a matter of fact kind of way. I told her that this is what I had been planning for ever since she offered me the job. This weekend was planning weekend because I had so much time to do so. Drove home, had a couple of glasses of wine, watched more sports with my godfather, played online, and went to bed.
I'm ready to hit the sack right now, but I'll update again tomorrow about my first holiday away from home.
Monday: Got up at 3:45am to take Adam to the airport. Got back home at 4:45am, and proceeded to walk to my bedroom for another hour of sleep (without saying good morning to the godparents before heading back for sleep). Woke up, tried pressing snooze, but my nerves got the better of me. I bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom before I charfed all over my bed. Never a good thing. I sat there heaving for a bit (sorry, it's so graphic...it's what I do when I'm really nervous, and this hasn't happened to me in years...like, since freshman year at SNC), and then eventually headed into the shower. Got out of the shower, did my hair and make-up, and headed out to make my lunch. My godmother was very thoughtful and made sure I had enough to take to school. I think a sandwich, yogurt (which she had stocked up on for me), carrot sticks and an apple were going to be good enough for my half hour lunch. Before I left for the day, she made sure to take a picture of me on my first day of school. I'll post it when I either a.) get my computer up and connected to the internet, or b.) when I go home for Christmas. On the way to school I had to find the right station for driving to work. I didn't mind listening to Z104 when I was home (I know, I hated Connie and Fish, but I didn't mind the talk in the morning mixed with some good music), but I had to find something like that to listen to. I finally got to school (it's a good 30-40 minute drive), and walked into the office to meet the assistant principal and the principal. The assistant principal walked me down to my room and was pointing out different things to me. There's a nice courtyard in the middle of school that I can use to teach lessons in. I think that's where they keep the school desert tortoise. We got into my room, and then proceeded to look for my lesson plan the sub left. Yep, definitely didn't leave a plan for me. I got to fly by the seat of my pants. Luckily the sub was in the building, so she walked down to my room and wrote down what pages the kids were at in their workbooks. Not in their reading books or anything else that's important, but their workbooks. The kids were really unruly, but that's ok since I was new, and they were used to the sub. I knew I had to stand my ground with them since I was establishing new rules and a new way of ruling for them. I was ready for someone to say, "well that's not how our last teacher did it...", but I didn't hear that. I had to leave early from school the first day to go to the "Ed Shed" to fill out all of my paperwork and sign my contract. I had to get fingerprinted...again. While I was filling out my paperwork, I dozed off. I knew teaching was exhausting from when I was student teaching, but this is ridiculous! All I wanted to do was go home to bed. It took me a good 45-60 minutes to get home, when it should only take me about 20-25 minutes. I had to call mom when I got done, and that wasn't too good. Let's look at this equation: Tired Kristy+ annoying mom+Las Vegas traffic (which is worse than Milwaukee traffic, and maybe a bit more than the Chicago traffic I've endured). That's not a good combination. Mom can be good to talk to for about 15 minutes, then she brings up the stuff that you don't really want to talk about at the moment. For example, she asked me when I was going to find an apartment. Well, let's see, I still have to do lesson plans for Tuesday and Wednesday, let me get on that as soon as I get home. I ended up falling asleep while planning, and heading into bed at about 9pm. It felt good to sleep, and I ended up getting about 9 hours of sleep that night.
Tuesday: Got up at 6:15, followed same routine as day before. Called mom on the way to school. Got to school, set up lessons...and then got a quick tutorial on my computer about the district email and software. Kids were a little bit better. I was able to engage them in an hour long lesson. I had only planned on 25 minutes, but let them run with it. As the activity was running down, the principal walked in and (had to ask my name) wanted to introduce me to the superintendent. They walked around my room (the principal told some kids they couldn't do what I had told them to do), and left. I didn't get to meet the superintendent. Later on in the day, I think it was during math, I heard one of my kids start singing, "She's got me spending...Ooo, spending all your money on me, on, on me..." I didn't think anything of it, other than J would be proud of this kid, since he wasn't singing the bad parts. Then I heard, "Whatcha gonna do with all them breasts, all them breasts inside your chest?" That's when I whipped around and told him that was inappropriate. As soon as I turned my back he was singing, "To the windoooowwwws, to the walls." Oh hell no, Miss Phipps doesn't play that game. It took all I had to not laugh at him though. He was having a good time. Got done with the day, headed out of school at 4:15. Went home, ate dinner, watched some sort of sporting event (which is all we watch here), played online, and went to bed. Oh! But at school, I saw a teacher bundled up in a turtleneck sweater and a jacket to pick up her kids from lunch recess at noon when it was about 70 degrees out. I thought everyone back home would love to know that one!
Wednesday: Same morning ritual. Decided to fit in with everyone and wore a long sleeved shirt. Met the kids outside, and realized the trouble makers were not here for the day! It made the day so much more bearable. I only had 11 kids in class that day. They went to a play put on by another 2nd grade class, and they were the best behaved kids! I was so proud of them!!! We came back and did a Thanksgiving activity that the kids were so into! I had to have them clean up before finishing since it was the end of the day already. It was such a better day than the rest of the week. Tried getting out of school before 4pm, but was stopped by the grade level chair to discuss the testing that is going on this week, and a few other things before she left for track break. I was able to get out by 4 though. As I was walking out of the building, the assistant principal was walking out too. She wished me a Happy Thanksgiving, and made a comment about all of the books I was carrying out (I had all of my teacher manuals for their texts, along with their journals to grade). I made a comment about how much fun the 4 day weekend was going to be. She turned to me and said, "Well, you have to do it.", but it wasn't in a sarcastic way, more of a matter of fact kind of way. I told her that this is what I had been planning for ever since she offered me the job. This weekend was planning weekend because I had so much time to do so. Drove home, had a couple of glasses of wine, watched more sports with my godfather, played online, and went to bed.
I'm ready to hit the sack right now, but I'll update again tomorrow about my first holiday away from home.
posted by Kristy @ 10:14 PM
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