I have survived 22 days of teaching.
Most days have been good, others have been a little more challenging.
But I can honestly say I have loved each one and I can tell it's going to be a splendid year.
My students are absolutely adorable, all 19 of them.
Within the first week I was able to get to know their names and their personalities.
I have already heard so me pretty funny stories, most of which I should have written down because they have already left my overloaded brain. Some of them are still fresh in my mind...
"My friend speaks Silent Language too." (said while another student spelled her name in sign language.)
"Miss Morgesen, one time a bee flew in my ear and it touched my brain and did damage then it went down and came out my stomach." --I had no clue how to respond to that one...and yes some students are still struggling with my name.
My name is pronounced in a variety of ways each day: Miss Morsen, Miss Morgensen, Sister Mortensen, Mom, Mrs. Mortensen, Miss Mor-uhhh. We're still working on that.
Today, was a momentous day. I feel I have finally arrived as teacher due to the fact that I had a student puke in my room. Luckily she made it to the trash. I was beyond grateful for that! She is such a sweet girl and had actually been sick last night but she couldn't imaging missing school and since she hadn't thrown up during the morning time she wanted to come to school. She is one funny girl, but I told her to stay home till she felt 100% better. After I walked her to the nurses office, and the puke trash bin was replaced with a puke-free one, I Lysoled the entire room and sprayed smelly-good spray to mask the not so pleasant smell. Awesome. My students were so worried about her and they all made her get well cards during their free time today. She will return to school with a desk full of sweet and colorful card from her classmates. I love it.
This week I have also successfully made it through 2 of my 8 formative evaluations! One of which was taking place during the puke incident. I was so nervous for someone to come and watch me teach, but afterwards I realized it wasn't so bad and I really appreciate the feedback. I am glad I have a few weeks in between to improve before I get evaluated again.
Today was also the school carnival! The nearby golf course donates a couple golf carts for teachers to drive around for one of the activities. I had a blast! Those little machines can get going a whopping 8 miles an hour! It was so fun to see the looks on the kids faces when they got on the cart and I started driving all crazy, going off huge 2-inch jumps, pretending to drive into the fence. Remember how crazy it was when you would see your teacher at the store and you could hardly believe your eyes, that a teacher was somewhere outside of school doing something other than being a teacher? That's how my students looked at me, it was hilarious. After 1 hour of putting around in my hot little vehicle, I turned in my wheels and headed home for my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Papa! Otherwise, I could have stayed for another 3 hours, except for the sweaty bum issue from the pleather seat...
Wow, my initial little thoughts turned into quite a blog post. Go me!
Also, I am 21! As my grandma said in her sweet birthday phone message, "You're actually legal in a lot of areas now." Thanks Grandma, I love ya! I will be getting my new license tomorrow, if I remember... usually be Friday my brain is near implosion status and I am in desperate need of a nap. But tomorrow is the first day of Autumn, so it's going to be a good day!
Well that's probably if for now... I think I will try getting some of that sleep stuff that I have heard people talking about.
