Manic Mondays

It's my second week back at school and my first Monday. I thought I would dread waking up this morning, yet I only hit my snooze button four times. :)

My first five weeks is supposed to be all observing but since I interned in Jessica's class last semester I have really gotten to know how everything runs. SO, Jessica is throwing me in the shark tank early. This week we are going to plan all of next weeks reading lessons together, and next week I am going to be teaching reading every day!! I am super nervous but actually really excited to get started early. The more practice the better I figure and I can always learn from my mistakes. Next week I will be planning the lessons myself..YIKES. After that we will slowly add in each subject. Wish me luck!

Here's a little tear jerker for all you cry babies like me. We have this student in our class named E. He is on a behavioral managment plan and has been tested for special ed but nothing seems to come out of it. We have put together multiple ways of trying to manage his behavior. Right now we use a post it note on his desk. When he is off task he gets a black check and (he just added this himself) when he is on task he can get a negative check with a blue pen. His rewards or his punishments depend on how many checks he has at the end of the day. Well, as most of you know this is of course the student I am most drawn to. I want to help him so badly and I hope each day I will have a break through. I started in this class last August and one of these breakthroughs has yet to happen. So my story for today is that he is starting something new where each Monday he goes to a different classroom where the social worker is. Jessica asked me to walk him there so as we are walking he is being great, we are chatting and he is in high spirits. When we get to the room he stops in his tracks and will not go in the room. Apparently, one of the other boys in the classroom is a boy that is a year older than him. This student picked on E when he was in kindergarten and "hurt" him. I am not sure exactly what that entails but I do know that the look on his face broke my heart. If it was my choice I would have turned him around and taken him to Chuck-E-Cheese or something. That was obviously not one of my choices so instead the social worker came out to talk to him. E explained his problem, so she had the other student come out to talk to him. E ran halfway down the hall way, so I told him I would give him three negative checks if he was willing to cooperate. The student admitted to "hating" E in first grade but he assured her he was a better person now. E would not go back into the classroom until this boy was on the opposite side. I had to leave him there in that awful classroom all by himself, it literally broke my heart in two. After lunch E was not the same, he completely turned us off and wanted nothing to do with us :(..there's always tomorrow.

It's eight and I am finally home on the couch..time to catch up on Californiacation..go to bed and do it all over again tomorrow. I wouldn't have it any other way