I guess it is time to sit down and write about school. It is my first year and I have successfully stayed alive for my first 3 weeks. I work at David Gourley Elementary School as a first grade teacher in south Salt Lake City Utah. 75% of my school is below the poverty mark and about 70 % are Hispanics and 10-15% Pacific Islanders leaving a few white kids in my class. If your wondering I did plan on teaching kids with disabilities and that day will still come but for now I'm just in general education.
When I first decided to take this job at this specific school part of mydecision was because I got along with the principal so well. He helped a lot in the weeks leading up to school. Then about 1week before school he sent me a email saying he was sorry but he was going to be moving to another school. I almost betrayed and lost a lot of confidence in myself because I knew no one at the school and I felt alone. But those are things that we all feel in our lives many times. I went to talk to him before he left and heat me down and gave me some great advice.
1. You area first year teacher don't expect to be perfect.
2. Leave school t school
3. You are doing good if you go home everyday still breathing and wake up the morning still breathing, that's all that matters.
There was more wise advice and those were all things I have been told before, but hearing intone last time from him made it finally hit home. But despite finally believing it I went against the first 2 pieces of advice and tried to be perfect and took school home and worked on it a lot. When week 2 started and week 1 was nothing like I expected I realized I needed again to try David's advice to me. When something would go wrong I would sit and think about it after school and then I would just laugh...seriously that helps everything.
Since finishing 3 weeks I realize that everyday is still a challenge while I figure things out, but I have lots of help. My new principal and assistant principal are great as well as my other first grade teachers. Although out of the 5 first grade teachers 3 of us are new to teaching...sometimes we wonder if the first grade will even move on to second grade! There are days that I feel like somehow nothing got accomplished and that my kids leave hating me, but that is even something I have gotten over.
I am a teacher and if you ask if I love it, I will tell you no. I have not found that pure joy getting up every morning to drive to school for another day of yelling and struggling to get through alesson. But I am starting to like it more everyday. We are starting to get into a routine and when my kids finally can show me they can follow the rules and not act like they are 2 then I think I will like it even more.and don't worry I will let you know when I start to love it, but for now I am still breathing and patiently wait for weekends to come. I am a teacher.
Kids cry everyday for whatever reasons and i am always the shoulder to cry on. My class has already gone through more tissues than I would I a year. I am the giver of band aids to make boo boos stop hurting. I am the one they run to the moment they figured out something for themselves. I a the one they telleverything to, even if parents don't want me knowing. They hate me for a minute then run over and give me a hug. My kids looked like they were going to tie me up when I told them they were going to have a substitute on Friday. They also told me if it was the same guy as last week they would never talk to me again.
Most of the time I have no idea what is going on in their tiny little hands but despite all of it...I have found I love all of them already. Even my girl who interrupts class every 5 seconds to tap dance or scream at the top of her lungs, even the boy whose voice is always whinny, or the boy does that farting thing with his armpit, the girl who cuts hair or glues her shoes together, my little space cadets who never knows what's going on, or my precious children who always listen and pay attention.
These are who my kids are and I love them.
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