I know, I know, I have only been in school for less than 3 weeks. It feels like 6 months already! WOW is kindergarten exhausting! Not to mention ELD kindergarten. I have spent the last few weeks in the midst of back to school madness. Meetings, parent night, and this week curriculum night. It seems like no matter how early I get to bed I am still just as tired the next day. Tomorrow the kiddos don't have school because it is a teacher in-service day...but I get to sit in meetings all day. I think I would rather be with the kids:) I feel like I just can't get caught up with all of the paperwork and things that must be accomplished to get the school year rolling. Basically every week I get maybe 20 minutes of prep time (total) during school. The rest comes before or after school, which means I am there before 7 usually and stay until after 4:30....add in Phoenix traffic and it makes for a LONG day. If you work in a school fortunate enough to have teacher's aids...be thankful!!!! So...kindergarten ELD...honestly I love it. The first 2 weeks we really just focused on rules and procedures...but this week they are really catching on. There is still the language barrier but they are learning new words in English every day and we PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. They are really good kids. I am concerned with some of them academically and developmentally, not so much with English language development ironically. Most of them did not attend preschool and a lot of them came in very behind developmentally. Of course I also have a few who are ahead of the game and I am scared of holding them back. 5 year olds are great...every day is fun and interesting. I had one kid today burst into tears because his tooth came out and he was in shock...he had no idea they were supposed to come out. It's funny....none of them really knew that except those who had already lost teeth. I also was reading a story today that mentioned "freckles", and a kid who had lots of them. Well...because they are learning English I make them repeat new words constantly. So....when I asked them to try to say the word "freckles"....it came out sounding like something completely different (think bad word)! Ha ha ha. You just don't realize all of the little things you have to work on them with that you wouldn't work on in regular kindergarten. For example simple things like asking to go to the bathroom....they don't know how to say it in English. Everything must be taught to them new. Ahhh...it's going to be an interesting year. On top of being swamped at work.....I am starting grad school Sept. 1st and planning a trip home for Amanda's wedding the 11th. I must be crazy. I just hope I can keep all these balls in the air. I really worry sometimes that I am taking on too much. Well...instead of rambling I should be working on the application to renew my Arizona teacher's license...by the way, can you believe they make you pay $120 for that?! Ridiculous.
