I knew today was going to be good when 23 of my 24 angels brought their re-enrollment forms back as asked. Wow... they do listen! I was pleased... they had a great morning and things started off well. When they came back from specials we had a hard time on the carpet but really got things together. We got through our phonics, and reading and things were still going well. We moved into workshop time (which is when they are supposed to be at stations) yet they are currently sitting at their desks doing packets until they earn the privilege back.
So we go to lunch and recess and I'm in a pretty good mood still! YAY Here is when things got crazy.
I came back from my bathroom break to find one of my students laying in the mulch with his feet up in the swing. I find this strange but I stomped over there to scold the child for laying in wet mulch. When I got there he was looking straight through me and not being responsive. I asked another teacher to try to talk to her and she got the same response.
So the two of us picked up the child and all of his dead weight and helped him as he stumbled his way over to the bench. He was acting drunk and totally unresponsive. So I'm starting to panic, but still pretty calm on the outside. I got administration and we finally got him into the office where the decision was made to call 911. Within about 10 minutes we had 3 firemen and 3 emts in the small office with me the child the principal and the dean. Talk about overwhelming. So they are checking this and that and asking all of these questions and things weren't getting any better. When asked to hold a cup the little boy reached his pinky out, which showed me again his motor skills were suffering. By this point we have discussed that the child has had seizures in the past and the child had clearly had a seizure.
We were unable to get in contact with Mom so the emts wouldn't leave because they needed to know whether or not to take him to the hospital. Finally after a friend of moms told us she now worked at some gyno on such and such road, I googled those two pieces of information and called about 6 offices in search of mom.
The child finally got back to his regular self, but mom came and took him home. Where were the other 23 kiddos? Well they were split half and half between my team teachers classrooms. BLESS them. Without any questions they interrupted their entire afternoons to keep my kids while I was helping this child. Then after my hour and a half of stress, and the other teachers hour and a half of 12 extra kids we all decided to watch magic school bus for the rest of the afternoon.
Seeing how worried I had been really forced me to realize how much I love these kids. Even through the unending amounts of stress they put me through on a daily basis.
Here is to a calmER and uneventful day tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
First Day Back...Already Tired.
2 weeks away from children and I enjoyed every minute of it. However a few days before school started back I was actually missing them a little bit.
There were a few happy moments first thing this morning when they were all still a little tired yet happy to see me. I even had a rather rambunctious boy telling me how much he missed me over break. The kids were all excited to tell me what they had gotten for Christmas and they each wanted my attention at exactly the same time.
I began the day by telling them there was a new sheriff in town and they could start calling me Sheriff Funk. They laughed at me but I was serious. I would say about 80% of my kids flipped their cards today because I wasn't letting them get away with anything. I could feel myself softening as the day went on, not because I wanted to but because I was getting more and more exhausted as the day wore on. I began to have less and less energy to fight the battles.
I rallied up the energy to go to the gym after school and then cook dinner for myself. Ever since I have been sitting here mindlessly watching tv trying to figure out how I am going to get through to these kids and help or make them change their behavior.
Any thoughts?!
There were a few happy moments first thing this morning when they were all still a little tired yet happy to see me. I even had a rather rambunctious boy telling me how much he missed me over break. The kids were all excited to tell me what they had gotten for Christmas and they each wanted my attention at exactly the same time.
I began the day by telling them there was a new sheriff in town and they could start calling me Sheriff Funk. They laughed at me but I was serious. I would say about 80% of my kids flipped their cards today because I wasn't letting them get away with anything. I could feel myself softening as the day went on, not because I wanted to but because I was getting more and more exhausted as the day wore on. I began to have less and less energy to fight the battles.
I rallied up the energy to go to the gym after school and then cook dinner for myself. Ever since I have been sitting here mindlessly watching tv trying to figure out how I am going to get through to these kids and help or make them change their behavior.
Any thoughts?!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
It's Been a While
Something has been stirring in my heart for the past couple of days and I'm not quite sure what that is but I decided I would try to write some of it out and begin to sort through my feelings.
I've spent a of of these past 4 months wallowing in the challenges of moving to a new place, living alone and being a first year teacher. A few days ago I woke up thinking, here I am, single teaching in a high poverty school. What COULD I be doing that I'm not. What opportunities do I have as a young single woman that I might not have later in life as a teacher. Can I invest more time in my kids? Can I spend more time lesson planning? Can I pray for them more? Can I pray for my patience more? Can I volunteer with an extracurricular activity? Can I search for volunteers to get help into a school that desperately needs it? Can I spend time with kids after school to foster relationships?
So those are a few thoughts that had been spiraling in my head for the past few days. Then today my eyes were opened to the fact that I have so much power and influence over the lives of my kids. This moment happened after school when I only had a few kids left in my room. We had just finished playing treasure (where the kids search for the magic piece of treasure (trash) from the floor and whoever gets the magic piece gets candy. Basically a quick way to get the floor cleaned) But anyway, I was sitting up on my back table and my kids were all sitting criss cross on the floor in front of me. I was about to award the winner of the game and I also gave an honorable mention to every child that participated for something great they had done during that time. The kids were looking at me with these wide open eyes that were just anticipating what positive thing I was going to say about them. There was nothing magical or important about this moment, I just got this overwhelming feeling that my words and actions had huge power over my kids.
So I began thinking about how my attitude and demeanor towards my kids has power and how I need to be more aware of that. If I snap at a child because someone snapped at me and the effects are now rippling, what is that doing to the kid? If I tell a child to stop talking when all they want is to have their voice heard, then what message am I sending them about the value of their opinions and ideas.
I'm in a hard position with some hard kids, but I am in the position to influence them in a positive way. So I simply have to make the decision, HOW am I going to use my words and actions to influence my kids.
Hmm...
Well I guess I'm going to get back to grading papers and snow dancing. This tired first year teacher would LOVE a 2 hour delay. Come on wake county... please?!
I've spent a of of these past 4 months wallowing in the challenges of moving to a new place, living alone and being a first year teacher. A few days ago I woke up thinking, here I am, single teaching in a high poverty school. What COULD I be doing that I'm not. What opportunities do I have as a young single woman that I might not have later in life as a teacher. Can I invest more time in my kids? Can I spend more time lesson planning? Can I pray for them more? Can I pray for my patience more? Can I volunteer with an extracurricular activity? Can I search for volunteers to get help into a school that desperately needs it? Can I spend time with kids after school to foster relationships?
So those are a few thoughts that had been spiraling in my head for the past few days. Then today my eyes were opened to the fact that I have so much power and influence over the lives of my kids. This moment happened after school when I only had a few kids left in my room. We had just finished playing treasure (where the kids search for the magic piece of treasure (trash) from the floor and whoever gets the magic piece gets candy. Basically a quick way to get the floor cleaned) But anyway, I was sitting up on my back table and my kids were all sitting criss cross on the floor in front of me. I was about to award the winner of the game and I also gave an honorable mention to every child that participated for something great they had done during that time. The kids were looking at me with these wide open eyes that were just anticipating what positive thing I was going to say about them. There was nothing magical or important about this moment, I just got this overwhelming feeling that my words and actions had huge power over my kids.
So I began thinking about how my attitude and demeanor towards my kids has power and how I need to be more aware of that. If I snap at a child because someone snapped at me and the effects are now rippling, what is that doing to the kid? If I tell a child to stop talking when all they want is to have their voice heard, then what message am I sending them about the value of their opinions and ideas.
I'm in a hard position with some hard kids, but I am in the position to influence them in a positive way. So I simply have to make the decision, HOW am I going to use my words and actions to influence my kids.
Hmm...
Well I guess I'm going to get back to grading papers and snow dancing. This tired first year teacher would LOVE a 2 hour delay. Come on wake county... please?!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wacky Tacky Day
Wacky Tacky day was THURSDAY at school this week. I know these kids don't really look too wacky tacky but normally these little "angelic" children wear uniforms that keep them all looking very much the same. However, this week as a substitute for not being allowed to dress up for Halloween, the kids were allowed to pay a dollar to dress up "Wacky Tacky."
I made the mishap of telling my kids that Wacky Tacky day was on Wednesday instead of Thursday. I had about 9 kids show up dressed out of uniform on Wednesday. It was quite the disaster. Kids were crying (I think because they were embarrassed). I was fighting tears (because I was embarrassed) and the whole thing was just quite a mess. Thankfully the kids didn't realize I was fighting tears because there was this one day where my eyes were really messing with me and watering a lot. So now every time I am fighting tears, they just ask me if my eyes are bothering me again and I always say "yes." No more questions are asked...thank you God for allowing them to believe me.
The real wacky tacky day (Thursday) came along and the kids were wild. It was cool to see their personalities shine though, but no uniforms paired with cupcakes from a Mom made for a high energy day. Lucky me I was trying to keep them calm enough to take spelling, reading AND math tests. Oh yea... it was also a half day which added to the insanity. Needless to say I think we will all be retaking the math test Monday when we are a little more focused.
I didn't have them today (Teacher Workday) which was a nice change, and I'm hoping for a rejuvenating weekend so that I can go back on Monday to do it all over again. I'm unsure of a lot of things in and around the job world right now but one thing I know for sure.. I can almost guarantee I will never say Wacky Tacky day is on the wrong day of the week ever again.
See Pictures Below!
Wacky Tacky Pictures
The picture above is them doing their "good children" imitation!
This looks a little more like the rowdy 6 and 7 year olds I spend my days with!Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Technology
Today I was spent.. simply spent. Kids didn't listen all day. I had 5 kids out today, so I thought things would be calmer but I was wrong.
So by the end of the day the kids are done, I'm done. We are just done. HOWEVER, we still had thirty minutes left and it was time for Social Studies. We began our social studies unit on technology.
So we are talking about technology and how technology is when science helps to make something easier or solve a problem. We talk cars, cameras, etc for a while and then I suggest a piece of technology I hope they create in the future. I told the kids that a problem I had was that my 2nd graders didn't know how to keep their mouths quiet while I was teaching, and that hopefully one day someone would create some type of technology that would fix that.
One of my sassiest girls calls out and says, "Ms. Funk we already have that.. it's called a clothespin. Open the clothespin and pin the mouth shut."
At the end of an exhausting day this just made me laugh. Thank goodness for laughter.
So by the end of the day the kids are done, I'm done. We are just done. HOWEVER, we still had thirty minutes left and it was time for Social Studies. We began our social studies unit on technology.
So we are talking about technology and how technology is when science helps to make something easier or solve a problem. We talk cars, cameras, etc for a while and then I suggest a piece of technology I hope they create in the future. I told the kids that a problem I had was that my 2nd graders didn't know how to keep their mouths quiet while I was teaching, and that hopefully one day someone would create some type of technology that would fix that.
One of my sassiest girls calls out and says, "Ms. Funk we already have that.. it's called a clothespin. Open the clothespin and pin the mouth shut."
At the end of an exhausting day this just made me laugh. Thank goodness for laughter.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Teaching Update!
I knew teaching would be hard, but I'm not sure I was ready for just HOW hard it truly is. My days normally start around 5:45 am (later once I have hit snooze a couple of times) and I get home from work around 5 in the evenings. The time in between, well, that is where the craziness ensues.
I love being at the school really early in the morning before any of the students or the majority of the staff have arrived. I love the quiet, and the ability to use the copier without waiting in a line :)
Kids start entering the building at 7:45 where they sit down in the gym and wait until 8 o'clock where we have our morning assembly. There we say the pledge of allegiance, and struggle through the student pledge together. One day I WILL get it right. "We are PreEminent Students..."
I then escort my 2nd graders back to our room where we settle down and write in our journals until they rather quickly leave for their specials class. They are then gone for about 40 minutes and I spend that time either in meetings or getting things together in the classroom. Anything that needs to happen without kids better happen then because once they come back at 9:10 they are mine all mine until the end of dismissal at 4:00.
The rest of the day is a mix of whole group teaching, and workshop time (Centers). The kids eat lunch in the classroom, so we go pick up our food and then come right back and eat SILENTLY. The silence is because the 15 minute lunch period will never happen if they are allowed to talk. It already takes longer and they are silent. Everyday during lunch we listen to Canon in D which is basically for my sanity. Recess is after lunch for another 15 minutes, and then we are back in for the long haul of the rest of the afternoon.
I have 25 second graders in total and 18 of them are boys. The girls are pretty good as a whole, but the boys are crazy! I have about 6 constant trouble makers and the rest of them are just chatty little 7 year olds. Now would be an appropriate time to note that I have no assistant, so that is problematic sometimes. How I would love to have an extra set of hands in the room on occasion!
I have had my fair share of issues, "accidents" and vomiting etc, but nothing too too major. One of the funniest lines I've heard all year was when I was reading a story to my kids on the first day. It was called Don't Eat Your Teacher. So at the end I asked if they were going to eat me now that they had read the story to which one little boy replied, "nah we'll save YOU for dismissal" I clever response from a 7 year old...
Some sweet moments that truly keep me going are moments such as every morning when one little boy walks in and shakes my hand while looking at me with his sparkling eyes and bright smile. Or at the end of every day when one little girl gets called for dismissal, and runs up and gives me a huge hug and tells me she loves me before she leaves.
Let me end this post by saying today has been one of the better days I have had thus far, and there have been many days when I have not come home with quite such a positive attitude about this new journey I am on. However, I felt like I needed to record some positive things while these feelings were with me so that the next time I come home feeling like I just fought an 8 hour war I can remind myself that I DO enjoy teaching!
I love being at the school really early in the morning before any of the students or the majority of the staff have arrived. I love the quiet, and the ability to use the copier without waiting in a line :)
Kids start entering the building at 7:45 where they sit down in the gym and wait until 8 o'clock where we have our morning assembly. There we say the pledge of allegiance, and struggle through the student pledge together. One day I WILL get it right. "We are PreEminent Students..."
I then escort my 2nd graders back to our room where we settle down and write in our journals until they rather quickly leave for their specials class. They are then gone for about 40 minutes and I spend that time either in meetings or getting things together in the classroom. Anything that needs to happen without kids better happen then because once they come back at 9:10 they are mine all mine until the end of dismissal at 4:00.
The rest of the day is a mix of whole group teaching, and workshop time (Centers). The kids eat lunch in the classroom, so we go pick up our food and then come right back and eat SILENTLY. The silence is because the 15 minute lunch period will never happen if they are allowed to talk. It already takes longer and they are silent. Everyday during lunch we listen to Canon in D which is basically for my sanity. Recess is after lunch for another 15 minutes, and then we are back in for the long haul of the rest of the afternoon.
I have 25 second graders in total and 18 of them are boys. The girls are pretty good as a whole, but the boys are crazy! I have about 6 constant trouble makers and the rest of them are just chatty little 7 year olds. Now would be an appropriate time to note that I have no assistant, so that is problematic sometimes. How I would love to have an extra set of hands in the room on occasion!
I have had my fair share of issues, "accidents" and vomiting etc, but nothing too too major. One of the funniest lines I've heard all year was when I was reading a story to my kids on the first day. It was called Don't Eat Your Teacher. So at the end I asked if they were going to eat me now that they had read the story to which one little boy replied, "nah we'll save YOU for dismissal" I clever response from a 7 year old...
Some sweet moments that truly keep me going are moments such as every morning when one little boy walks in and shakes my hand while looking at me with his sparkling eyes and bright smile. Or at the end of every day when one little girl gets called for dismissal, and runs up and gives me a huge hug and tells me she loves me before she leaves.
Let me end this post by saying today has been one of the better days I have had thus far, and there have been many days when I have not come home with quite such a positive attitude about this new journey I am on. However, I felt like I needed to record some positive things while these feelings were with me so that the next time I come home feeling like I just fought an 8 hour war I can remind myself that I DO enjoy teaching!
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