So little time

This week has been ridiculously busy. So this post is going to be extremely long; just bare with me! I think my biggest accomplishment this week was breaking the mold at recess- I am playing a game of kickball with my children every day now instead of sitting down on the bench and watching them play. This is s0 rewarding because, now, every morning one of the first things they ask me is, "Can we play kickball today??" I found out that they don't play kickball in gym anymore, so I was excited to be able to share one of my favorite parts of childhood with them. They are slowly getting all the rules and figuring out the game. It still looks like chaos form outside the game, but it makes sense to them and me. My biggest fear about doing this with them was that they might lose respect form e as an adult and the teacher- and this hasn't happened; actually, just the opposite because it seems like now they come to me for everything that goes on in the room no matter what it is- I feel so good about myself as a teacher that I was able to establish myself as a friend and a teacher figure- which is VERY hard to do. Monday was pretty average...no major melt downs or dramatic events that required paper work (thank goodness!). Most of the first week was spent working to get my Unit Work Sample put together and ready to turn in on Thursday. All of my free time at school and at home were spent in front of the computer trying to figure out my two weeks of full time teaching. It was very stressful, but luckily the other Intern in 2nd grade was working with me and we managed to get it done just in the nick of time!

Wednesday was super stressful for two reasons: 1. My unit wasn't done and 2. I had to take the final exam for my online math class that I took this summer and completed about 1 month ago. Those of you who know me well, know that math is not my strong point, especially geometry and algebra. Lucky for me we had a half- day at school and I was able to miss out on the meeting at school in order to take this exam. I feel good about it, but I'm still waiting to get my grade :/

Thursday was also crazy busy! I spent all morning with the other intern in my grade finishing our unit, then teaching sporadically, had a mid- term conference with my teacher and supervisor, which went well! That afternoon, I was video taped doing my math lesson as well as ADEPTED ( working towards certification) by my coaching teacher. This was an assignment that i was pretty nervous about, but now that I am watching the video, it wasn't all that bad after all. I was able to notice several things about myself that I wasn't really aware of until this was done though. The biggest thing I noticed was how strong my southern accent is, and like my best friend said to me today, "good thing you don't teach up north!" I would be teased miserably! Also, first thing in the morning one of the little boys said to me, "Ms. Robinson, do you want to go to Frankies fun park with me for my birthday?" This was so sweet and I was at a loss of words. All I could say was, "Maybe, we'll see what's going on."

Today, Friday, was a pretty good day with just a little frustration. There is one girl in my class who cries about everything, no matter what. She lied to me today about an event on the play ground that I didn't see and found out about form another teacher, then almost lied to me again later this afternoon. I was glad to see the clock strike 2:30, but I am anxious about next week as well. I also made phone calls to parents today, and this was very scary. I was calling to get permission from parents to video their children because they had signed a form at the beginning of the year saying we couldn't publish them (take pictures, videos, etc). I was fortunate to get almost every parent on the phone and to get the permission to include their child- they didn't even realize they had signed that form!

Finally, when we were all outside for dismissal at the end of the day, J reaches into his back pack and gives me and the other intern in 2nd grade a pictures that he drew for us of Cocky. He had also done this earlier in the week and we loved them to much we put them on our fridges! This was a great ending to a crazy week!