Thursday, August 2, 2007

School daze

Boy, I'm exhausted! And only 3 days of school done! I feel like I'm doing more work outside of school (to prepare for class) than in school! But I guess that's the life of a teacher...at least a beginner. :o)

Friday and Monday were teacher inservice days. I met all my colleagues and became familiar with the school. I spent most of my free time that weekend feverishly making lesson plans and trying to figure out how to impart my knowledge and wisdom to 35 bright eyed students. ...Except on the first day I caught one yawning and almost falling asleep. :o)

I was interested to see how the teaching would go, seeing as how I've never done it before. I put a LOT of prep into my plans (and in fact, I still have a lot of set up work to do!) and that helped. The first day was easy...intros, housekeeping, and then an in class essay so I could learn about them... I did that on purpose. I didn't want to overwhelm the students (well, actually I didn't want to overwhelm myself!) on the first day. But I wasn't nervous at all!

Yesterday was the real test 5 periods of lecturing plus 2 study halls to monitor. Praise the Lord! It went great! I had enough to teach the kids to fill a period, they seemed engaged and interested (well, most of them, anyway) and they actually did the homework assignments I assigned them. It still feels a little surreal that I am assigning homework to these children and they are having to do it. And it definitely is strange to hear the words "Miss Kelly..." floating around the halls! :o)

But I can definitely see God's hand in this transitional time. I wasn't nervous at all when I got in front of the classes, and things went well. (Although I'm sure there are many bumps in the road ahead.) And I've already made a small connection with a few of the kids. ...The weather hasn't been too too awful. In fact, the first few days were actually really nice and sunny! I'm getting along great with the Rogers, the family I'm staying with, and I love living here. And I've even had a few small conversations in Spanish! God has been good!

Please continue to pray for my Spanish! It is frustrating to only kind of understand people, and I get a headache if I have to try to understand Spanish for long periods of time. :o) Also pray for me in school--that I will be able to fit everything in and the kids will actually learn what they need to--that I will be able to structure my lessons and get in the flow of things to save prep time (I"m exhausted!)--that I will be able to handle the inevitable difficulties I will face with some students and probably some parents.

So, that's an update on my first few days as a teacher! Hope you enjoyed it! Now I think I will take a nap. :o)

1 comment:

Linda J said...

Hey, Kelly,
Sounds like you're getting the teacher thing going - lots of prep!! Keep smiling. There is a saying the teachers shouldn't smile until Thanksgiving - I always broke that rule - smiled right away.

lj