This morning, I found a bag of items sitting on my desk at work. As I opened the bag, I realized that each item had a note attached hand written by my students. Here is what was in the bag:

A highlighter…for being a big highlight in my life
A sponge…to soak up the overflow when your brain is too full
A candle…to light a small mind
A cup…when yours is overflowing
A pack of crayons…to color your day
A jar of bubbles…to keep a bubbly personality
A jar of Play-Doh…for being a great role model
A roll of Smarties…to help stay smart
A bottle of glue…for holding everything together
A marble…to replace those lost from time to time

Typical me, I teared up and started crying. This was exactly what I needed after the worst day ever at work yesterday. Being a teacher has it’s ups and downs, but its the little accomplishments that make my job meaningful and keep me passionate about my job.

To all of those teachers out there…Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I just finished two days of 12+ hours days filled with both teaching and conferences….man, I’m wiped. I don’t know how people work like this. I definitely need time to regroup at the end of the day.

Overall, conferences went extremely well. It’s so good to hear that parents of my students are happy with my class and have seen growth both behaviorally and academically in their students. So I guess that means I’m doing something right. It’s nice to see how my students are progressing in academic and social areas. Sometimes it is hard to see those changes on a daily basis but looking at progress from the beginning of the year, it truly is amazing how much can be accomplished!

Here’s my funny story from this past week…

So I decided to play rhyming BINGO with my kindergarten students to asses their skills…little did I know, this was a mistake. I drew the card that said ‘horn’ so I asked the kids to give me words that rhymed with ‘horn’. And the responses went like this….corn….torn…..born…..PORN. I’m not sure if he knew what it was, but I calmly moved onto the next card while trying not to laugh. A few minutes later, I asked the kids to rhyme with duck…and I bet you can guess what happened. The responses went…luck, tuck….and then F—. Once again I moved along quickly to next word, while telling the student that was not an appropriate word. The funny thing is, this was not the kid I had given my ‘f word’ lecture to.

So moral is….be careful what language activities I use at work!

So it was only a week or so ago I was talking with a friends saying that work was nice and calm…well I spoke too soon. In the past two weeks, I now have two new students I am serving in my classroom. These students are great, but one requires one-on-one attention and one needs constant re-direction. Granted I do teach in a behavior classroom, but it still adds to the classroom and my stress level. These students are different then the students I am currently serving in my classroom, but it is good for me as I grow as a teacher.

On top of just classroom chaos, I have been involved a lot more with school wide behavior interventions and systems. It’s a role that I really enjoy, but it is ending up being quite time consuming. It’s a lot of time on the computer working with databases and spreadsheets, emailing staff members, sitting in meetings and talking with teachers. I feel very passionate about what I am doing, but it’s hard for me to do this all on my own. Throughout the school, I am becoming known as the behavioral expert, which is a great confidence booster, but staff also expect me to have all the answers for everything. And I will be the first person to admit I don’t have all the answers. For now, I am trying to take on only as much as I can handle and take in each experience as a learning opportunity. With everything I am doing for work, it makes me realize that becoming a behavior specialist is something I really want to do.

Today was the last day of school before winter break. I am looking forward to a relaxing two weeks full of friends, family and laziness. I have worked really hard over the past month and I deserve a break. So here’s to a good two week vacation!

After a few rough months at work, things have started to settle down. So far this year, I have been kicked, pinched, punched, bit, spat on and bruised by my students. Sure these are no fun, but they come with the territory. Recently one of my students moved to a more theraputic placement and one student started Ritalin (instead of Red Bull…see earlier posting). Now that these things have happened, my classroom actually feels like a classroom.

For the first time this year, I feel very competent in my teaching and how I am supporting my students. During my first year of teaching, I was confident in my teaching, but I was always making a few mistakes here and there…which is normal for any teacher. This year, I seem to feel more competent in my teaching and I am gaining respect of other teachers and specialists in my school and the district. At the start of this year, I became part of two school wide teams that design interventions for students who need more support. Through these teams, I am finding that people are becoming more impressed with my skills and expertise…which is great for me. I know that I don’t know the answers for everything, and I need to remember that I am still new to the district and I need to make sure I am not stepping on too many toes. However, it feels so good to have people look to me as a competent individual!

Well today was not so much fun. A few big bummers today…

First off, the roommate I thought was going to move in with me is not going too. She would have made the perfect roommate, but I respect her decision as she needs to save money currently. I was really looking forward to this, but I guess it won’t happen. But on the plus side, I made a friend out of the deal.

Secondly, I have had a strong feeling of helplessness at work lately. Although I can’t get into specifics due to confidentiality reason, I am feel helpless when working with one of my students. This student has a lot negative things in his life and it feels like no matter what I do, I am not able to help him or his family. I guess part of working in a helping profession is realizing that I can not always “save the world”. I just feel frustrated when I put so much effort into a student’s education, and I feel like nothing is working. I’m trying to focus on the small successes, but sometimes the bad out weighs the good.

Sigh…..