If I was the only teacher

Wednesday

This morning I woke up at 6:30 and was like “Please God don’t let it be morning already.” But it was, and I had to get up…teaching is like having an 8 o’clock class that lasts for 6 ½ hours…only you are the teacher and you get to grade and keep the peace between your students and teach. And no matter what time you go to bed the night before you have to get up and be chipper in the morning and be all energized and ready for the day…and there are just times when you generally think that things really can’t get worse…but when you think that something worse does happen….
Today I stumbled into worship wishing that I could still be asleep. In worship it was announced that Eric one of the fifth grade teachers needed a sub for his class, because his foot was infected and he couldn’t walk on it…or something like that…I didn’t understand all of the details…As I left for my classroom I was like “Please God, don’t let them take Evangeline…I need her…we are teaching math today and I can’t do it all by myself again!” So once in my classroom I talked with my students and cleaned up my desk and got ready for my day…all of the sudden Mr. B popped in…and started to talk to Evangeline…and then he turned to me and asked “Will you be alright without her today?” Inside I was screaming “NOOO! No! No! NO!” But I looked at him and said “I think so, I mean I suppose I could, just for today.” I felt like someone had unplugged me…I knew what I was facing today, I knew that I was going to get annoyed and yell at my students, I knew that math class was going to be a nightmare…I started song service with my kids and I could just feel my energy level drop…like how my computer must feel when I unplug the battery cord and just let it drain out until finally it shuts down… As soon as worship was over math started…and you know teaching two classes at the same time, and having to get one class going and then to go to the other class and work with them, trying desperately to keep them on task and away from their own little world while at the same time telling the first class to work quietly and not to come and ask me questions until I could get over to them. Happens to be really hard... But as usual my students wouldn’t listen, I had to yell to be heard…I had to scream out “Hey!” for them to even notice me, their teacher…and point to the board where I had written the answer to the problem (the math lesson for the younger kids was really weird and hard and there was no way that they were even going to understand it, so I just gave them the answer and even then…a lot of them got it wrong) Just in the nick of time it was 10 o’clock which meant recess, which meant teacher got 30 minutes alone without any kids just to sit and relax.
I wish that I could say that the afternoon was better, but it wasn’t…today it rained and was cold, o.k. o.k. in the 70’s but that is cold to me. And my students were loud and I had to turn a lot of names and I wished ever so often that Evangeline was around so that I could have support…really how do teacher’s in the states handle it? But I guess maybe kids in the states are a little different. I really don’t know…but do they really allow five year olds in first grade?

It is Tuesday night, and I am just chilling in my apartment, I should be grading, but there are times when even a teacher needs a break. Today it rained and when it rains my kids don’t listen…I don’t really know what causes them to not listen whether they think that if they talk loud enough to match the sound of the rain, their voices might drown out my voice or they just want to color in their notebooks the entire day. Whatever the reason is by the end of the day my head hurt and all I really wanted to do was sleep for a very long time…but oh that was not to be.
After lunch my aid left and didn’t come back. At first I thought that she was just taking her boys home (for they are in like preschool and kindergarten) but she never returned and her daughter who is in my class didn’t know where her mom had gone…I could have really used her this afternoon, things were just so hectic…another person around would have been wonderful! But that couldn’t be helped.
I find it funny that I have to ask my kids when we line up at the gym if they are ready to go in…and they always scream “READY!” when in truth they are anything but ready…as we walked back from the gym today little Chad (he is the youngest in my class) kept stepping on the back of my flip flops…I would turn around and look at him…and he would be like “but teacher he is doing it to me” the he referring to the boy walking behind him…I didn’t mind it the first four times that I lost my slipper (that is what they call flip flops here), but around time 5&6 I knew that it had to stop. Of course it is awfully hard to get mad at someone so adorable…but I did let him know that I was tired of it…after turning around and stepping on his slipper…and watching him giggle with delight as he scampered after me…(this is when being tall and having long legs comes in handy).

Monday

Well today was Monday and I was on pins and needles because today my class was getting evaluated…well really I was and I was so nerves…I had heard stories about past evaluations that different SM’s had to go through and I was so worried. I got into my class a little late cause staff worship ran late and I hurried to get ready and I stacked on my desk all the things that Mr. Rodman wanted, all three little blue books, my schedule, and of course have a place for him to sit. He was suppose to come in at 9:30 which would be right in the middle of my math lesson and I was totally fine with that. But at 8:55 in walked Mr. Rodman and I was suddenly all flustered because I was running behind and I knew that worship would go into math time and I stumbled through the rest of “I’m going to sing, sing, sing” and then I read the worship story which was about snails of all things…and then we had to have prayer requests and anyone knows that takes a long time when dealing with little kids…because what starts out with ”Teacher I want to pray for my mom” about seven seconds later the same kid will raise his/her hand and say “oh and my sister is sick” and then two seconds later “and I want to pray for my grandpa cause he died” at which point I try to turned their attention to praying…I will usually lead out and they will repeat what I say. Which I have found is a good system.
Once worship was over I split my kids into their two groups for math…Evangeline took the younger math group of 8 kids and I took the older math group of 9 kids. And things went smoothly and at 9:25 Mr. Rodman left and I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to teaching….actually when I got a copy of my evaluation I found that I did fine and there was nothing that he wanted me to change…that was a surprise to me…oh yes it was. But at least I know that I am not being a awful teacher…some good is coming from my being here.