suddenly I see... this is what I want to be.

lately things have been.... rather adult-like. My life is so bizzare, no classes but I go to Baylor... I'm doing Pigskin practice and that is the only time all week long that I'm actually on campus. Its strange. My class is so wonderful, I'm slightly obsessed with them! The other night I was at Common Grounds with the besties and I caught myself talking about them too much, granted I had all their work from the last two week spread in front of me like a strange display. In my class I have 9 gifted and talented students and 3 special ed kids and all the rest in between... its a huge gap to deal with. talk about differentiation. My day goes a little like this:

7:35- get to school and say hey to my mentor teacher, Diane Biarnesen. She's incredible and was just nominated as teacher of the year for my school. I was so proud and felt so lucky... we talk a little bit about the weekend or night before and I get to hear stories about her boys and football and she always asks about my roomies.
7:43- I can hear my kids lining up in the hallway and EVERY morning Maria peeks around the corner and waves, "psst.. pssst. HEY! Miss Melinder........ hi. "
7:45- the day starts. we do morning work, usually a dreaded worksheet or something just to occupy their time. Nereyda comes and gives me a hug and looks at me with huge eyes and asks in broken english, "i come home with you today?" "sorry sweetie, we'll just hang out at school" "mmm. okAY!" Jose begins to test me already by stealing Marielas hair ribbon, so he loses a post-it within the first five minutes. Now he hates me... at least until the end of reading.
7:50- morning announcements. pledge of allegiance. god bless america. pledge to the texas flag. texas our texas. Bell's Hill pledge. moment of "silence" (I check homework). Hero of the day. Birthdays. and 10 minutes later we go on.
8:15- check morning work... and they fight for my attention. I watch as the 1301 students pick up their little first grader for 30 minutes of tutoring and remember when I thought that kept me busy.
8:25- Community circle: I ask questions and they answer... and you NEVER know what might pop out of their mouth. My favorite is, "complete this sentence...'I wish'..." "that Miss Melinder was my sister!!!!"
8:30- small reading groups. I try to not fall asleep and cling to my coffee mug.
9:00- reading! If I'm not teaching I'm grading papers and filing stuff and making copies... but if I'm teaching life is good. I love reading. My kids... not so much. but we're working on it.
9:35- success maker. ew. this is 45 minutes of computer TAKS prep that eats away at our day. and its such a struggle to get the kids to focus after they've been doing it for so long...
10:15- writing is another favorite of mine, because grading their writing is a blast. The stories I get back are anything from space cops to how two of the girls plan to break into my house and have slumber parties. oh goodie. for some of my darlings, organizing thoughts into paragraphs is just too much so I do a color coding system now... its working!
11:00- math. blaaaaaaah. and i love math. but apparently multiplication is still a struggle and I have no idea how to fix it.
11:52- glorious lunch! I drop the kids off to the cafeteria which make me sad... they have be practically silent in there, and I head to the teacher's lounge/workroom. Oh man. Teachers in America are hilarious. and tired. and have a lot to talk about. and complain about. but I love getting to know all of them... fourth grade is one of the best teams so the paraprofessional staff eat with us too, which is great they have the best stories.
12:20- pick up the kiddos again and head back to the classroom. This is when I really wish we could go out to recess, but alas... no time. We have social studies to do. Did you know that you could study Native Americans in Texas for 4 weeks? I didn't. and you shouldn't. It was rough, but we made it through and now life can move on to happier things. like Texas geography! thats this week... I'll let you know how it goes.
1:00- Special classes/conference time. Walking the kids around the school tends to be a slight stress for all the interns. If they misbehave when someone important is walking by, its so embarrassing. but honestly, I hate making the kids be silent in the halls... kids weren't designed to be silent. Its that time walking through the halls or talking in the cafeteria that they learn to be social and make friendships... and we wonder why so many kids are socially behind. its because they never get to socialize in a controlled environment. Me and Mrs. B have grade level meetings and plan things for the following week and talk about how lesson for that day are going... what should change and how certain kids are doing. praise the lamb for communication.
1:50- getting settled in after specials is REALLY tough. the kids are all riled up from running around or want to sing me the song that that just learned... it usually takes me rewarding the few calm children to get the rest to chill... positive reinforcement is beautiful.
1:55- Science time. whoop! Want to grab a room full of 9-year-olds attention? Make an egg float in a jar of water... you'll have them in the palm of your hand. Experiment days are wonderful... and they love making predictions and SHARING those predictions, whether we have time to hear them or not. hmm. "turn to your partner and share" is my new favorite phrase.
2:20- catch up time/library/counselor/recess (gasp) all year long, this time has never been the same thing... and i like it. we're flexible and by this time the kiddos are ready to explode out the door.
2:45- the fight to get homework copied into planners and copies passed out... backpacks packed and keeping the classroom from turning into a reenactment of running the baylor line. its madness and I'm usually about to lose it by this time... but I try to breathe and keep my college-level sarcasm under control.
3:00- Bell's Hill explosion. dismissal makes my Pine Cove brain hurt. I'm still baffled about how no kids have been lost yet. I have so many ideas about how to make it better, but i'm just an intern... one word: megaphone. I have car duty which is basically, "Sit down! Listen! Sientete! SIENTETE!" and.. "lo siento pero no puede salir esta puerta, lo es solomente por los ninos en coches."
3:15- more prep time for next week or faculty meeting. Mrs. B and I usually end up wasting our time talking or rearranging our classroom again.
3:45- I leave... not quite ready for the next day at all, but ready for the unexpected.

then I go to work, then other work, then sing practice. then go home and crash.

thats pretty much all I ever do! and thus why I haven't updated the blog so much...