Second year

WOW! I cant believe how much of a difference a proper room and the second year of teaching can be. Holy smokes, I feel like a real teacher this year.

First year bummers that only happen your first year (ie, something to look forward for all of the years after)
- not knowing who to go to for simple questions
- not knowing ANY students names the first week of school
- reports and paper work taking DAYS to figure out: where to get this paper, what do i do with it, do i even need to fill it out, where do i take this paper, who do i give it to, what is it for?
- being at a loss if a class finishes the lesson 5-10 minutes early
- accepting that sometimes teachers drop off students 5 minutes early and pick them up 5 minutes late


all of these things happened last year and none of them happened this year, along with several other things that i just cant (dont want to) think of right now.

In addition to knowing what I'm doing, my new room is about 3-4 times the size of my classroom last year. I can spare a whole corner of the room for time out, we can do movement exercises without kids falling into the wall, my desk, or each other. It's awesome and has made such an amazing impact on my teaching. Also just being inside the building keeps me in touch with the kids and other teachers. That helps tremendously, I can now use the bathroom in a matter of minutes! I can make myself hot tea just by walking across the hall! My teaching career has taken a turn for the better simply by not being my first year and by having the most awesome room ever.

Too much!

People told me over and over, don't take on too much your first year, and I did it. The end of the year consists of a giant talent show including 5 musicals. UGH! After school is over, I will have one day off, then I start on a month long tour of the midwest and east coast, after that I will have 1 day off before I teach for girls rock camp, after that, I will have just 2 weeks off before my 2nd year starts. yup. I certainly took on a lot for my first year. I'm sure I'll tell new teachers the same thing next year, but will they listen? Probably not. Just like I didn't listen!

We only have one year left of this insane amount of students, then it will be changed to k-5 minus 200 students! horay! That will be much easier to manage. To have only about 80 kids in each grade will be absolutely fantastic.

The end of this year is going to be so daunting, but once I get past May 15th, it will be easy sailing right through the end.

2nd half of the year

Things are much easier when the students fall into our routines, things move a lot quicker, there is a lot less confusion, it makes writing lessons a lot easier and I can give more responsibilities to the students. yay! I've been having them sing the hello song, roll call and now i'm having them play a simple piano part along with it. Some of them pick it up so quickly! It's really amazing. Even though I'm not supposed to, I'm starting them on recorder. I mean, I have them, so why not use them right? They love it, some of them, again, pick it up immediately.

here they come.

running bone

one of my 1st graders came into class and said his running bone was broken. i said, i dont think people have running bones, he said only some people have them, and that not only did he have one, but it was broken too.

thoughts about glbt students

I know that some students in my classes are glbt. By the time they are in 2nd or 3rd grade, they will know it too. We should encourage acceptance of every child, not matter what our personal views are. Every child is important!

'i hate music'

one of my kindergarteners enjoys putting up a front of hating music. today when we were collecting ideas of what to write our song about (an angry song), he thought we should write it about how he hates music, but he always says this with the biggest smile on his face and starts to laugh. its really adorable.

'my dad was in that band!'

just another story popped into my head.

while listening to the specials with one of my 1st or kinder classes, one of the students spoke up and said that his dad was the singer of this band. oh really....

things like this happen A LOT. for instance, while listening to a matty pop chart song, one of my students said 'this is on nemo', now i dont have any idea of what they were talking about, but i am assuming that they have not heard the 7" split of matty pop chart and nemo that came out on plan-it-x (i think). why would a 5 year old in the middle of texas listen to a 7" split of these two bands, and how would they be able to recognize the same artist in music class? weird coincidence.

i also find it rather uncomfortable to watch 6 year olds dance as if they are on a music video from MTV.


also, i never realized how fast kids grow, i would say over a quarter of my students do not have pants that fit. ie: their pants are unbuttoned and unzipped just about all of the time.
i just dont feel right buttoning up a little kids pants for them. so i dont. i am sorry. but that is too close for a music teacher to go.