I can see why people do this....

I guess teaching is like everything else in life. Lots of highs and lows. You just get the highs and lows of 25 little people for 6 hours every day, so I think it feels a little more intense at times. But yesterday and today have been near the high's of those days. Granted highs still include students ignoring me refusing to come out of the bathroom and crying, but it's still just really great. I thoroughly enjoy my students. I love seeing how their minds work and trying to make things exciting for them! I love having little moments with kids one on one where I get a smile out of them or they tell me something they're really excited about! I have already spent a lot of time with these kids and I'll be spending a lot more time with them and I'm already attached! So when the times get tough, I just want to remember that there are days where I do like it and where all the work and stress is totally worth it!

Keep calm and carry on!

When life gets tough, cry?

So today was just one of those days that should be recorded. I just had one student who couldn't handle anything we were doing. Every day is a battle to keep them in their seat and quiet. If he's actually doing what he's supposed to, extra 500 points. But he might be one of my favorites. He just needs a lot of one on one attention that I can't give him.
Anyways. Today. We started off the day with a spelling pretest.  I wrote the correct spelling on the board and he kept yelling out that he couldn't look at the board. I asked why not and he said "because my dad said I can't or I'll be grounded for the rest of my life!" Start the whining and crying. Luckily my facilitator was there and she took him out in the hall and gave him the test one on one. Then before lunch he accidentally hit a girl in the face so I asked if he would say sorry. He told me he already did. I said she didn't hear you so could you just apologize again please?
 "I don't ever say sorry two times!"
"Ok, well you need to say sorry before we go to lunch"
*cries and lays on a desk*
To avoid the whole class waiting for lunch I decided to leave. At the cafeteria...
"You need to say sorry before you come in"
"WHAT?? Now I don't get lunch!??" Sinks to the floor crying.
"No, just say sorry! It takes two seconds!"
"I already did!!!"
"Ok. Say it again!"
"NO!"
I finally got him to say sorry and then he was happy as a clam.

THEN

After lunch, he threw a fit because another boy threw the frisbee "jackpot dead" instead of "jackpot alive" so he refused to come inside.The principal was standing there watching and she told me to just leave him outside. So I did. He came in eventually.

THEN

During math he asks if he got any sad faces (bad behavior) on his chart today and I said Oh yeah. He proceeded to cry. For an hour.

That boy. He may be the end of me.

When he's good, he's great. When he's bad, he's horrid.


Welcome to my life.

Second time in Second grade

So I thought I would show the transition in decorating my classroom. Just give you a taste of what I do :) 

Here's my bulletin board...step 1

 step 2

 step 3

 Step 4- I added gold medals with the kids' names but I don't have a picture

 Here's what my room looked like when I started

 And the set up begins....

The finished product!! I already moved the desks and made some other changes, but this is how it looks more or less :) 

Picture from the first day of school 

So this is where I spend most of my waking hours these days with 25 of the most adorable second graders in Utah. So far it's been one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. But I enjoy it at the same time. And I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life so many times since moving here that I know this is where I'm supposed to be even though it's really hard. I'll try and update with exciting things, but here goes my exciting adventure in second grade!