I am the Teacher

Ok so I don’t know how to add anything to my own blog. How weird is that. Like I started blogging and then now can’t get into my own blog to add another post so I am typing this in Word in hopes of someday getting in and posting. Yikes.

I am feeling ok about the first day tomorrow, actually pretty good. I took a random and funny video to show and am not sure it is going to work… but if it does some of this might be repeats. I am doing my best not to freak out about tomorrow being my first day as a real teacher, all day just me and 20 five year olds. Today all day long we had an open house at the school so kids and their families kept coming in and out of my room and it was kind of surreal, like am I really a teacher? One kid who was an older sibling came in and I was working on something and he looked around and asked, “where is the teacher?” And so I automatically responded that I was but as I was saying it the reality of tomorrow hit me in the face. I am a teacher. I am going to be responsible for the education of 20 five year olds. There is no one else to fall back on (like when I was student teaching I felt the weight of that a little but if I screwed up a lesson the teacher could easily fix or reteach it.) But it’s just me and those kids all day long together. It was scary and real and exciting all at the same time.

As far as tomorrow goes, the plan is to go through a lot of procedures. Procedures procedures procedures all day long. Like how to sit down on the carpet. How to sit in a chair to work. How to transition from the carpet to the chair. How to line up. How to walk in the hallway. How to transition from the classroom to the bathroom. How to wash your hands. Like we literally have to bring them all in the bathroom, turn on the water, and SHOW them how to put soap on your hands and wash and dry them. And then we have them all practice and do it a few times! The hard part of these things is that we have to be really clear and specific the first week or two (especially the first day when all we do is practice) and I don’t really have the experience to know what is going to work best for this age. So I will be learning with them and changing my mind and plans a lot in the next few weeks, but it all starts tomorrow. I spent like two hours today looking up pictures of stick figures raising their hands, having a closed mouth, sitting on the floor… to print off to hold up to show them how to do things! It is a great thing for Kindergarteners who can’t really read yet and it is also great for ESL learners whose second language is English as the visual is extremely helpful for them in the learning process. It was fun to meet some of the kids today and talk with them and their parents. I was extremely impressed with the English of the parents, they could all communicate with me which I was not expecting.

Anyways, we are going to meet at school at 6:30 tomorrow to get last minute things ready for the first day! Which means I am going to bed soon… goodnight and pray for me tomorrow. I just hope no one poops their pants or throws up on me or anything. I have heard those nightmare stories from first year teachers and hope I don’t have one of those.