It seems like I am constantly on my computer these days, typing away at papers, reflections, and lesson plans. When I actually get a break, it's nice to pull out a book so my eyes aren't staring at a screen all evening. Unfortunately, that leaves me little time or energy to keep my blog updated. So here I am:
It has been an eventful week. My week started with classes and papers, of course. Then I was in the elementary school Wednesday. I am now taking over a lot of class time. I run the morning, take attendance, introduce Math, take the kids to lunch and specials, pick them up from recess and settle them into snack time. I also do geography mini lessons and sometimes lead read aloud time. Then, for my classes, I have to reflect on all this.
This week and next week the students have swim lessons. It's great because this is a time where I am completely alone with the students. No host teacher to back me up or step in if the students riot against me. So far it is going well. I enjoy watching them learn to swim. It's actually very comical. The other teachers and I sit on benches near to pool and keep an eye on our students, while chatting. It's nice bonding time that we wouldn't get elsewhere because we all have busy lives. Then when the lessons are over, we rush the kids through the locker rooms and onto the bus again.
I think my host teacher is trying to get me used to being in charge for the entire day. This is something that the students have to get used to as well. My host teacher and I have similar expectations but sometimes I feel that I am much tougher on the students than she is. However, they try to push me more than they push her.
Anyways, this week I had students in class help me redecorate the wall outside of our room. We needed to change the color of the leaves on our tree to make it more fall like. They also wanted me to add a spider web and spider along with a "scary black cat." Here is how it ended up:
Now, it's the weekend and I'm swamped with papers, readings, journals, and there's always something I'm forgetting. Friday I came home from school and crashed. It's exhausting some days. Saturday morning around 3:00AM I have an unwanted surprise. I woke up with the sound of my bedroom door opening. There was silhouette of someone in the doorway and my fight or flight instincts kicked in right away. It was a completely wasted college girl in the wrong house, wrong bedroom and she refused to leave. I sat up in bed thinking to myself that "this WOULD happen to ME!" Why oh why did I forget to lock my bedroom door? The girl laid down on my floor and took off her shoes. After a bit of coaxing and finally some yelling, I got the girl out of my room. This didn't stop her from trying to enter my other roommates bedrooms. She even started yelling for a friend of hers, thinking that I was the one in the wrong house and her roommates would come prove me wrong. *sigh* I got her downstairs putting on her shoes and as soon as I turned my back she ran up my stairs again and into my bedroom. We played this game for a bit, with me yelling at her and she getting sad, making me feel bad for yelling, and then getting belligerent with me. I called the CA for help because my roommate who has been sick was doped up on NyQuil and slept through the entire thing. While the CAs were on the way, the girl took a seat and rode down my stairs on her butt before telling me she was going to be sick, depositing some loose change and a half smoked rolled cigarette on my counter and then crashing on my couch. Finally, I convinced her to put her shoes on and get some fresh air. I was even going to help her to her own apartment and bedroom, but she couldn't tell me what apartment she lives in. She made it a few steps out my door and then sat on my front porch step. Luckily the CAs showed up and helped her back to her apartment.I woke up the next day still dumbfounded about the debacle but able to see the humor in it. While telling the story to my roommate we both laughed (and still laugh) about it. However, we are both terrified to leave the doors unlocked again, unsure of who might possibly stumble in. This trespasser was smaller than me and could easily have been taken down if needed. The next one may not be....I may have dodged a bullet here.
Moving on, today I took a trip to my elementary school just to get out of the house. I took my computer and my books with me and got some work done. I still have a long way to go but at least it's progress. Tomorrow and Tuesday I have been excused from my classes. Juneau is having it's state wide literacy conference and my host teacher is adamant that I be there. SO, I'm going to go listen to lots of speakers talk about literacy. I've heard great things about it, so who knows, it could be fun. Either way, this takes away two days that I generally work on homework. I guess that means I better get busy now!
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