Oy...

So Monday strikes. Before school started, we were all called into the library for a quick staff meeting. Our principal talked to us a while about my former 4th grade teaching buddy (who left last Thursday). She wanted to "end the gossip mill," but all she seemed to do was add fire to the fuel. She went on about how the guy had signed two contracts at once, was very dishonest, etc. It turns out they're trying to pull his certification now, and that there's some sort of lawsuit. Yuck. Too bad he wasn't a young, attractive gal, and he wouldn't have had that problem.

As far as the students go, the mornings have been SO good since I've started, but in the afternoons, I lose the class. In the mornings, they work hard and they're attentive; in the afternoons, they're off in la-la land and won't be quiet. Arg.

Of note today: I surprised most of the class when I started speaking in Spanish. I was trying to identify the Spanish speakers, so I'd know if I needed to draft a letter home or not for tomorrow night's open house. I asked, in Spanish, "How many of you speak Spanish? Raise your hands." Three hands shot up, and then they were like, "Whoa... did you just speak Spanish?" So I told them that I spoke and wrote Spanish, and that I wanted to know if I needed to write a letter home in Spanish also. Popular census agreed that I did.

Also, I've been reading the kids George’s Marvelous Medicine right after lunch and recess. They didn't seem to care much the first day, but today it started getting good, and there were "oooh"s and "ahhhs" and "eww!"s all during the story. It was music to my ears! :)

I'm a teeny bit nervous about tomorrow night's open house, as I've never conducted the teacher side of an open house (nor the parent side, for that matter). I posted some of their work on the wall (the paint activity we did), so there's at least a sample there. Hopefully it'll be quick.

Anyway, as usual, I've been questioning whether this is for me or not. I suppose I'll give it the year to see how I feel. And of course, every year after this will probably be exponentially easier. Or not. Still thinking of other helpful jobs I could do and still make a living... we'll see.

Finally, I feel like right now I'm just trying to survive. I don't feel like I'm doing much real teaching yet; my lessons feel mediocre at best. We're working mostly out of the texts now (which was what our principal told us to do, but it's kinda dry), so I don't feel like much of a teacher. I did, however, use a globe today to illustrate some interesting geography and science tidbits that the students seemed to like.

That's all for now. Peace to you.