Whew! It's been two weeks since my last post!

First off - in honor of dear old Saint Patrick -
What's Irish and sits in your back yard all night?
Tune in to my next post and find out!

So o o o, I've been a salaried teacher for two weeks. I've been in this teaching job for FOUR weeks with four to go. I can't believe it's half over. Yup, I'm planning to apply for a full-time teaching job as they come available. Hopefully, now that schools have asked teachers for indications of intentions to return in the fall they will soon know how many positions they will have. I know that Loni is hoping to work closer to home, so she and I will once again be competing for teaching jobs. Only this time, she has a year's experience under her belt as well as all the right answers at interviews! My only hope is to get a job at my current school or at the Bible school where I'm better known than she is . . . .

Well, to update a little -- the first student I zeroed in on as a prospect for my effecting change in his school life got transferred to another classroom before I even had a chance to meet Dad and convince him to let us continue to work with his son. We weren't making much progress, though, in how much work his son was willing to attempt (read none!), and his new teacher across the way is having a bit more success. But poor lady has her hands full with 24 other students AND this uncooperative one.

Since my last post, my co-teacher and I have: reorganized the room arrangement; sorted books; gotten caught up on paperwork and grades (these were way behind); cleaned out the closet (and I DO mean cleaned out [ packed away boxes and boxes of stuff to another closet - but this week we have a tornado drill and have to squeeze 33 children and two adults into that closet and next month there is a fire inspection - nothing can be on the top shelf of the closet and it was packed to the rafters; there was hardly room to move through the closet); reorganized some of the teaching pattern - more instruction, less papers; determined which children are in danger of retention and had meetings, paperwork, parent-teacher conferences, etc. about this; learned how to post grades on the computer; input weekly grades, done final grades and other kinds of reports; had a teacher work day full of meetings; had lunch with small groups of students several times; stayed after for several hours every day and come in 45 mins or more early, too; come up with new systems of incentives and implemented them. In addition, my co-teacher has gotten over being pretty sick, moved, found a new home for her dog, and had a formal observation. In further addition, I've met with my mentor and done a lot of the planning for the days/weeks.

Some things I've learned: that teaching takes a LOT of planning (if you don't have every moment planned, the students will take advantage of momentary lulls and run you ragged); that it pays to be strict at first; that a calm, quiet, firm voice works better than a rant (hehe - wonder how I learned that!); that a teacher has to make a point to encourage and notice the well-behaved children rather than spend all her time noticing and working with "needy" or obnoxious ones; that co-teachers need to be carefully selected for compatibility -'nough said; that politics is large in schools; that schools would be better off without lots of government involvement; that No Child Left Behind isn't accomplishing its purpose (and I'm a conservative who blames Ted Kennedy and Bush's attempts to molify liberals for its failure); that teachers would rather be teaching to the student than "to the test", but that really isn't an option in today's climate; that teachers work VERY hard and their days are LONG (I knew this but now have experienced it); that there's LOTS of paperwork involved in schooling; lots about how I want to run a classroom of my very own and lots about what I don't want to do.

I don't know how much difference I've made in the lives of these students - doesn't seem like much, and soon their regular teacher will be back to finish out the year. The students will have to readjust from the changes I/we've made to the ways of their regular teacher. I probably shouldn't have made so many changes, but they were changes I needed to make for me, for my peace and way of teaching. If nothing else, these weeks have been a great learning experience for me, a wonderful preparation for starting fresh next fall, Lord willing. I'm kinda old to be starting out as a teacher, and I'm lots more tired than my daughter is and I need more sleep, which I'm not getting. I have four more weeks, then it's back to substituting, boo hoo (but occasionally taking a day off at my choice, too, yea!).

Do me a favor. If you have children in school, take a minute to thank your child's teacher. You'll probably make her or his day!

Have a wonderful day of worship tomorrow.