October 8, 2012

         Today was madness. It was Monday; there is no doubt about it. All of our students were very wound up throughout the whole day and had a very difficult time listening and following directions. We spent a lot of time redirecting behavior and working individually with students who had a hard time staying focused. Monday’s are usually crazier than any other day of the week. When students leave on Friday they have two whole days to loose sight of the rules and behavior that is expected from them on Monday. If I have learned one thing about the age group I am working with, it would be that there needs to be constant reminders and many different ways to motivate students! I tried to spend a lot of time with the class today, but Mrs. Irvin also had a lot on my “list” for the day. I was running around and I’m not sure if I sat down once the whole day… until now that is! I am starting to really get the feeling for how much work goes into being a teacher. There are so many things going on all the time, on top of keeping track and educating 25 students. It’s a lot, but at least I’ll never be bored!

         My highlight of the day today was finding out that I will be teaching the entire 2^nd half of the day tomorrow. Mrs. Irvin will be out for a doctors appointment and I will be teaching for her. There will be a substitute in the room, because it is required by the law, that will act as I usually do (helping out with behavior issues and monitoring the classroom). I am very excited to see how the students behave and respond to my teaching without Mrs. Irvin in the building.