1st Early Release-- Survived

When I was a child, I always loved Early Out days, for the obvious reasons. Who doesn't like an extra couple of hours to play at home? At my elementary school, we always got out in late morning, so often Mom would treat Ben and me to lunch. That was always a super special treat.

However, as a teacher, I must say that I was slightly dreading today. Because our day was 1 1/2 hours shorter, our whole schedule had been tweaked. I was sure we were going to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily, we had no such flukes, but there was definitely a sense of urgency the whole day. Everything was rushed and hurried. For some kids, this is no problem, but for others, it is very difficult.

As usual, my kids had a good morning and a rough afternoon. I am so eager for them to mature just a bit more, so they are not so antsy to get home. At our school, since most everybody is on free and reduced lunch, we have lunch as part of our early release school day. (So that nobody has to worry about going home hungry--seriously.) This means we have to stay at school quite a bit longer and don't have those fun teacher-lunch-outings (I miss those from my student teaching...) And it means that we have a definitive After-Lunch period in which the kids are crawling out of their skin in hopes of getting home.

Today, of all days, was also the first day of our special reading program. For 1/2 an hour, 2/3 of my class goes upstairs and works in small groups to improve their DIBELS scores. This leaves me with 6 very high students. I am excited for this time, because I often feel like these kids are bored during regular instruction. My goal is to make sure that this time is used wisely to challenge and stretch them.

I experienced my first early-release staff meeting today as a paid employee. It was mediocrely miserable - no, it wasn't that bad. Our main point on the agenda was energy consumption. Doesn't it seem like EVERYBODY is trying to use less energy? It's all people talk about... This topic brought up some lively and accusatory discussion. Part of our school plan is to limit classroom appliances (refrigerators and microwaves). Most of the teachers were VERY opposed to this. When I was directly asked how I felt about the subject, I had to honestly say that I thought the plan would work great. I don't have a fridge or a microwave in my room- and I'm surviving just fine- if it'll save us tons of money, why not?

The problem is that most teachers have become accustomed to such novelties and they are "sure" that life will be "miserable" if they can't continue keeping them. I am sure that that is not the case : )

Oh, yes, the solutions committee. Our problem to solve today was How do we cut back on congestion in the hallways? I must admit that I added NOTHING to the discussion on finding a solution- because I didn't have any grand ideas. The idea we (okay, they) came up with was to have kids enter their Art, Music, PE classes through one door and exit through another. We also decided that teachers are supposed to pick their classes up 3 minutes early in order to have the hallways clear.

If you have any other problems, be sure to send them my way. Until then, finish your week strong and I pray I will do the same...