Progress

I'm making tons of progress but still having to work 12 hours a day to keep on top of things. Classroom management has gotten much better but still needs improvement. I've got the relationship part down, at least. My students complain far too much, so the other day, I made each one of them say something they were thankful for. A few students said they were thankful to have such a good teacher :-) I've had to leave my students with a sub several times while I've gone to meetings and trainings. Every time I tell them I have to leave, I get a disappointed, "Aaawwwww!" The class even worked together to make me a touching birthday card, more than a month early.

I've got one student who has been abused at home, another who can't read or write and grew up on the streets - he often needs to have power struggles with authority figures -, another student who lost her dad and uncle and whose mom lives in Puerto Rico. They all need extra TLC coupled with a firm hand.

So you can see my visible progress:



"He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me... To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless." ~Psalm 18:16-25

The good, the bad, and the ugly

I'm still very busy but making progress. At my school, people drop in on your class unannounced all the time to observe. Lately, I've been observed by the bilingual supervisor (my boss), the bilingual coach, my mentor, and the math coach. They have all been happy with what they've seen, and my math coach noted "dramatic improvement" from her first observation to her second. I can expect to be observed on a regular basis now by my principal, and there is also an outside organization that observes new teachers - I'm on their list.

Our school has a "Town Meeting" once a month, in which each class has the chance to share something they have been learning with the rest of the school. I have been teaching my class about the importance of reducing our impact on the Earth, and I put together a slideshow with their help:



I thought when I came back to the United States that life and teaching would be more predictable and without so many interruptions. I was wrong. For one thing, having a bilingual class, students are always coming and going. Since the start of the school year, two of my students have left to go back to Puerto Rico for good, and one Friday morning recently, I suddenly had a new student who had arrived from Puerto Rico. Tomorrow, one of my students will be mainstreamed, and in March, another of my students will also be making the switch from bilingual to mainstream. There are so many other interruptions - phone calls, announcements, schedule changes, last-minute parent meetings called during class... And then there are the more serious disturbances - A seventh-grader in our school was killed a couple of weeks ago. I still don't know exactly how it happened, but the sorrow it caused was deep and widespread. And yet we have to move on. I was one of the least affected, because neither I nor my students knew the boy.

It's been good; it's been bad, and it's been ugly, but this is the truth I see at work:

" 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.' " ~Isaiah 43:1-2