and this weekend, my new one came! And I am back to being able to watch my movies! Yay!
This week has been very interesting. Some of which I can talk about but I really do leave off the politics of my teaching world, so I am not going to dwell on any of that stuff.
My M friends were sick most of this past week. So I wasn't spending much time with them. I stopped by Friday and was catching up, when there was a knock on the door. It was our friend K-Dawg, who was here to spend the weekend. So a K-Dawg weekend it turned out to be. We normally play games and last night, we busted out the karaoke games (Beatles and other songs) and I belted out "I Will Survive". We must have needed to let off some steam because we all got really silly. I was never very good at Guitar Hero/Rock Band and so I just stayed away from those games. Well, at M's house, you are handed a guitar and told "It's your turn." So I played, and I was pleased that I got better. K-Dawg was hogging the base. (Sigh....honestly!!)
Life is going well at school. The first grade class has been having a hard time. Their teacher never returned after Winter Break. I knew she was struggling but I was surprised she didn't come back. I had heard of that happening, but I had never actually seen it happen. The kids have been acting out and are obviously hurt. Their new teacher is handling things well, but it's hard. I'm by no means saying you have to stay where you are and be unhappy, but after seeing how much the little ones are hurting and feel abandoned, I don't think I'll ever be able to leave somewhere in the middle of the year. Well, life would have to be pretty horrible for me to do that.
But what's annoying to me might really be horrible to someone else. I know the water/power/sewer outages can be very frustrating. And they might not be over...but I my mom has sent me some dry shampoo, I have learned how to save water, and I am getting better about not getting upset if I can't shower twice a day. Once is fine and I'll live if it's been a day. I don't like it, but I'll be fine.
Yes, the kids can be challenging. Especially if you are new to teaching. Classroom management can be challenging to any new teacher. I remember it wasn't until my second year teaching that I read a book and attended an inservice that changed things for me. Ah, Robert MacKenzie....I am such a fan! Turns out my friend M read his book on parenting. Which would explain why we have similar styles with kids and discipline. I am by no means perfect and there's still tips and techniques that would benefit me, but I feel classroom management is one of my strengths. After five years of reading up on it and several seminars, I had better be good at it by now.
I have a theory about kids and behavior: If a child is having issues at home, he/she is going to test their teacher. They are going to push the rules to see if that teacher is who they say they are. They want/need that teacher to be strong and stand firm. The rest of the world may topsy turvy but their classroom is always consistent. They need their teacher to be calm, consistent, and fair. One child testing you can be exhausting. Add several children who are testing you and you have quite a school week ahead of you. What some teachers here don't seem to realize (or maybe they romanticize the lower 48) is that there's always a student who will test you. Or at least a student who will challenge you......and if you are lucky, there's only one. But some kids test you every now and then, just to make sure things are what they should be.
The thing to do is to not take it personally. To accept that life isn't going to be the "perfect" image you had: Rows of desks with students sitting nice and quietly, sitting in apt attention for your next perfectly thought up lesson. No, life is messy. As my friend once said: You can get what you want, but it won't always look like you thought it would.
Life certainly isn't looking like I thought it would. And I'm okay with that! I've got a huge puppy, two cats, great friends, a loving family, and I live out here in rural Alaska.....(India's re gifting me a birthday present....). My puppy has started sleeping on my bed, is almost house broken, and is always entertaining.....no, life doesn't look what I expected it too....but my goodness! Who could have expected all this????
