A brief update...

I've been a slack blogger, but I usually am. I go through spurts of wanting to write and then wanting to keep it all to myself.

Today was day #14.

I thought that as you continue in your teaching career things get easier. Well..not so much for me. I feel more like I am lost in a sea of papers, little people, data folders, smart goals, common core standards, PLCs and everything else. I feel like my classroom is in shambles and routines are nowhere to be found.

I feel like I can't even get things started or organized. It's like I don't even know what I want my classroom to be. It's absolutely draining and disheartening.

I'm so ready to just throw up my hands and walk out...for fear that I won't be able to get it together at all.

I love my 23 students. Well....1 of them gets on my nerves frequently, but that's to be expected. We laugh often mostly at ourselves and are learning lots of reading and math vocabulary. I am really proud of them.

It was a crazy start to the year. I was the fortunate teacher who had all but 1 of her kids show up the first day. The other two didn't and have been getting about 1 new kid a week. One of them got 2 in one day.

In a span of 5 school days, I had 3 throw up at school and 1 poop their pants. I've gone through about 6 boxes of Kleenex.

I have one sweetie who is so low. She's supposed to be getting tested soon. She is priceless!! We were working on numbers that come after other numbers. I asked my students to show me on their dry erase boards what comes after 49. She says, "forty-ten". Ha! She also has said that if you need to get rid of your hiccups, you can hold your breath for 10 hours. :) She cracks me up on the daily.

Despite feeling like there's no room in our classroom, I have had a good start to the year. I just feel like I'm not giving them enough and don't even know where to start. So frustrating!!

I don't even know how to ask for help....

Hopefully, things will come together soon.

Next Year

I have already started to think about next year, as most teachers are. I have been thinking about it all year really...making mental notes and trying to figure something out. I tabbed a page in my go-everywhere-hold-everything notebook as my 2011-2012 ideas and to-dos. I am hoping to spend quality time purging a lot from my room this summer and reorganizing.

I plan on rearranging my room to reflect more of what I believe as a teacher. I plan on getting rid of a lot and reorganizing EVERYTHING!

I definitely fail in the organization category. I just can't seem to get it together. I plan to put a lot of my "worksheets" and activities into binders by subject, but I have to figure out how to organize them in the binders. I really wish I could have taken a college course on classroom organization! I'm going to figure it out, write a book and have my career made! haha!!

My theme for next year will be star related, I think. I'm going to play around with a lot of ideas and work on some decorations.

The biggest undertaking for the summer will be planning my year in units and really mapping it all out. Unfortunately, I didn't learn this in college either. There was no way to plan anything last year, and I didn't plan anything this year. I feel like I am finally familiar with our "curriculum" to break it and do the things I want. My personality is very much a "rule-follower". We had a reading "Nazi" last year who was a stickler for following the book. It's difficult to break myself out of habits. Thankfully, I have people who are willing to push me and help me figure it out.

We are very blessed to have a local church coming to host a school makeover work day for us in July. They're bringing tons of supplies and people to spruce up our school. We got to submit wish lists of what we'd like to see. I can't wait to join them in making our school over.

I am looking forward to having an even better year next year!! I am so inspired by everything I am reading in books and what other teachers are doing. Y'all are seriously amazing!

I am also secretly hoping that I get the entire kindergarten class in the room next to me...minus one who I know I would not get along with. :)

Head on over to Time 4 Kindergarten to see what other teachers are planning for next year.