radio silence.

Please excuse my silence of the last 37 days.  As you might imagine, I've been very busy!  I now have 5 weeks of teaching under my belt.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind experience and a complete overhaul of my life.  I now wake up before the sun every day (looking forward to the time change tomorrow night!), leave the house around 6:55am, get to work just before 7:30, and my day gets off to a start.  I'm also tired by 9pm, which still is crazy to me.  Lights out by 10:30 every night, which isn't usually hard because I'm exhausted, but I do feel like a grandma sometimes :) 

At last report my class had 23 students in it.  By the time I started my first week, they had changed that number to 17.  A couple of weeks later, I had two new students show up (in one day).  Last week, one boy was switched into another 5th grade class at the school because of social issues (aka fighting).  Then on Wednesday this week, I found out that a girl in my class was moving and it was going to be her last day.  So, I'm back to 17 now!

I don't even know where to begin.  I'm loving my job, even though it can keep my every moment busy.  I have to have a "cut off" time so I don't work all night.  I'm happy to do most of it, though, and I love my students.  Out of the 17 I have, 13 are boys.  Three of them in particular keep me on my toes.  Actually, they have "attitude issues" and have a difficult time not talking out and being disruptive in class.  Today was probably one of the best days that one of the boys had.  After I really got on them this week, I'm praying that we are turning a new leaf and that it wasn't just a fluke. 

The school I am working at is pretty high academically, which is wonderful.  It also means I have added pressure to keep these kids at high levels in Language Arts and Math.  For the most part I feel good about it, but sometimes the responsibility overwhelms me for a moment.  The other 5th grade teachers are wonderful and so supportive, anticipating my needs in some cases, and ready and willing to answer questions when I have them. 

I promise to be better about updating.  I also promise to take pictures of my room soon to share with you all...