Wow! All I can say is.... I am E X H A U S T E D!
On Wednesday, I dragged myself home from school, pulled into my driveway, and realized I had nothing for dinner. So, I turned around and headed down the street to the fancy local European Market. I hobbled through the parking lot on aching feet, past all of the beautiful, exotic, fresh produce... past the TVs tuned into Giada on the Food Network, who I'm sure was preparing something spectacular for her supper... I found the small freezer case at the back of the store where I grabbed a box of frozen chicken nuggets and a bag of frozen peas. On my way to the register and grabbed a package of prepared rice pilaf. Dinner. That was all I could muster.
So, where to start...? Well, I guess I'll start with the weather. This past week would have to be the hottest of the summer. Over 90 each day. And I'm stuck on the second floor of an old building in a stinky big city with no air conditioning in a room with twenty-one 9 and 10 year olds. Can you spell "miserable"? To say it's hot would be an understatement. The room has a ceiling fan, and the principal gave me two loud old box fans. These do not help. I've had to shower again every day after getting home. Next week is supposed to be about 10 degrees cooler. I hope we feel that difference upstairs.
My feet are swollen. They are killing me. After the second day I had to drag myself shoe shopping because everything I owned was too uncomfortable. I needed flats. I bought 4 new pairs of shoes. I wore a different pair of my new flats each of the past two days. My feet are still swollen and now I have blisters on my heels (which the students noticed and were very concerned about... "Mrs. W. Your heels are bleeding! Do you want me to go to the office and get you a band-aid?")
I've lost my voice. Teaching requires a lot more talking than my poor vocal chords are used to. And those loud fans I mentioned? I have to talk even louder to be heard over them. You can actually hear all the fans in the upstairs classrooms buzzing from the bottom of the stairwell.
The days are long. 8:00-3:15. That's difficult to plan for when you have no specials (Art, Music, etc.). I guess those are supposed to start next week, which will be a big help. The only thing I could think of to do was teach one subject twice to fill the time because 8:00-3:15 is way more than enough time to spend 45 minutes each on reading, writing, English, religion, math, science and social studies. Even when I planned for all this and factored in lunch, I was still left with about an hour each day that I didn't know what to do with.... so we did math again! Actually, to be honest, I completely underplanned the week! I didn't plan for social studies at all, thinking I wouldn't need to, and then when I did a minute by minute schedule, I realized I had too much time left over (which is super dangerous), so I had to manifest a social studies lesson out of thin air. I scoured the classroom library and found two pictures books about young girls coming to America through Ellis Island. Perfect. The Plan: Read and discuss the first story on day one. Read the second story on day two, then have them write or draw what they would pack in their suitcase if they were going to leave their country and family forever like the girls in the stories. Not bad, I thought... but I still had one more day to plan for. Then I remembered Labor Day. Perfect again. Google to the rescue. I went to school armed with stories and activities about St. Joseph (the patron saint of workers) and Henry Ford (who was an innovator in the world of labor and was known for being very good to his workers). I managed to FILL the day!
The students are awesome. They are all beautiful and adorable and funny! For the most part, their behavior has been OK. I think it will get better because it is only the first week of school... and it was only a 3.5 day week at that. They haven't had much of a chance to settle into a routine. They are pretty close to perfect in the morning, but, for some reason, they are not so perfect in the afternoon. I don't know if it's a post-recess thing, or the heat, or what. Every day I've come home a little discouraged thinking its me, but then the next morning they'll be great again, so I don't know what the deal is. One afternoon while they were working on the suitcase project for my made-up social studies lesson, they all just started singing. Together. It was adorable. It was a current, popular hip-hop song that I hear all the time, but right now I can't remember which one it was. It made me smile... but then I remembered there were other teachers down the hall so maybe I should stop them. A cute moment nonetheless.
Despite the heat and the horrible swollen feet, I think I'll go back on Tuesday!
3 comments:
hang in there, i think you're doing great for your first week and that the students are too!! i think them being worse in the afternoon will get better-- you're exhausted at the day's end? so are they!!! they've been out of the school routine and long days for quite awhile! :)
Ugh. Sounds miserable. Still though, if you want to go back, it must not be all bad. I sincerely hope the heat breaks soon for you. I've been setting up the classroom with my CT for the past three days and we're lucky enough to have AC until 3:00 p.m. Even that hour-and-a-half at the end of the day though, has been unbearable. I really feel for you!
And your feet...now I'm worried!
Hang in there, good luck next week!
Melba
Melba... don't be worried! I've never really had a job where I've been on my feet all day like this, so they aren't used to it, and I didn't have proper shoes... plus the heat... I've been downing water all day and (maybe this is TMI) not really needing to pee. I think I'm retaining every last ounce of it... in my feet. I found out at the end of the week that we can wear tennis shoes. I think I'm gonna go invest in some KEDS. The students have been great, though! They make it all worth it.
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