One Tuckered Teacher

Today was my 30th day of school and my 41st post. Wow! That's a lot of teaching and a lot of writing. Thanks for being there every step of the way...

As you can tell from my title, I am tired. After my meeting last night, taking a shower, and trying to catch up with Ross a little bit, I fell fast asleep. When the alarm went off this morning, I was not ready to stir. Ross kidded me that he should of warned me that teachers do not get 10 hours of sleep. I don't need 10, I told him, just 9.5.

Let me tell you, though, that when you are tired, kids will walk all over you. Not on purpose, I don't think, they just realize that you aren't quite alert enough to get on them for every little thing, so they push the limits.

This made for a long morning. They were so chatty! I also received another new girl this morning- so that added to life's craziness, too.

I had a grade level meeting at lunch today. I don't like those : ( Although everyone tries to act civilized, you can just tell that there is division and strife. And I don't like those feelings.

The afternoon was better. I don't think I had woken up any, but the kids were sleepier- so it kind of evened out. We didn't have a special today, so we met for a class meeting. This was, by far, our best meeting yet. We always begin by reviewing our rules. The kids knew them well. Then I asked them what is going well in our room- How are we making it a safe and inviting environment?

Normally, at this point, kids just pick their best friend and say that they played nice with them. While this is an example, it's not a very good one. Today, however, kids were picking up on great ways that kids had shown kindness to one another- often things that I had witnessed as well, and was able to comment on. I am happy to know that they are cognizant of being a good, kind, fair classroom citizen.

I stayed at school for about an hour and a half after doing my parent pick-up duty and getting ready for tomorrow. I came home and went straight to bed. Please pray that I would be awake tomorrow. I want to be at least 5 steps ahead of them : )