Back to School!

Sunday was a day of frantic preparation for teaching on Monday. Thomas fielded the boys for much of the day while I sorted through and dusted off my lesson plans. Then I had to make charts, find puppets, instruments, etc. But, I am proud to say that I completed lesson plans for two entire weeks. (and did some of Thomas' lessons too, I am sure)

I put Ian to bed Sunday night and he talked about going to play mini golf and he wanted to ride the merry-go-round the next day. I explained that Mommy had to go to school, but Daddy would be hanging out with him all day. This didn't go over well. He started to cry and tell me that he wanted to go to school. I asked him what kids do in school and he said, "Mommy, we draw letters and point to them. Lots of letters!" Then I explained that Mommy's job was to go to school and teach the kids. He said that he could come with me and teach the kids too because he knows how to draw the letter H, a circle, a square, the letter T, the letter I, etc. In some ways, I was thankful he was still asleep when I left for work this morning because it is hard to suffer a broken heart on your first day back to work. For some reason, he is going through some separation anxiety with both Tom and me, so we are wondering how things will go when we both have to work on Wednesday.

Connor is in a growth spurt and is ready to eat us out of house and home. He is eating what appears to be every hour. He doesn't seem too interested in my going to work. I gave him a hug and distracted him from playing with his cars, which incited wriggling and crying to get back to those cars. Those cars are stiff competition.

So my first day was a series of surprises, some go with the flow types and some unpleasant ones. According to my schedule, I was expecting to teach 3rd grade as my first class. Upon arriving at the school and getting my class lists, the secretary reminded me it was a Day 1. And surprise-I had Special Education, not 3rd grade. I dashed for the car, got out my Spec. Ed plans and set up quickly. This is the largest Special Education class I have ever taught. They have combined two classes, so there are about 18 children. 5 are in wheelchairs and several are unresponsive and have aides. The rest of the children are mobile, a few Down Syndrome children, some autistic, the gamut really. Plus, the grade levels are a mix of K through 6 grade. It went better than I thought and thankfully in my experience, special ed children really love music. The higher functioning kids were participating well and I gave all of the kids a turn on a drum I had brought in and they loved that. But, I have a lot to consider in planning their class now that I have seen them and know what I am dealing with. The aides were terrific-singing along, helping the kids play instruments and handling discipline too. Honestly, I really like teaching Special Ed kids, I always have.

I headed to my next school and heated up my lunch, which was tilapia and corn salsa from the night before. After teaching 5th and 6th grade here, I got in the car to head over to my last school of the day. In the car, I took a quick drink of diet soda and started off. A few moments later, I was feeling nauseated to the point where I was breathing and gulping air to calm myself down. I pulled into a grocery parking lot and ended up barfing all of my lunch into a bag I had in the car. It was horrible. I popped a million mints and tried to shake it off. Got to the next school and seemed to feel better but clammy.

Kindergarten classes are really challenging at the beginning of the year. And having them at the last part of the day adds to the mayhem. They are tired, hungry, cranky and their capacity for listening quietly has been depleted by then. One child was making arm noises, then putting his feet on the wall. I quietly spoke to him and asked him to stop making noises and to sit nicely. He seemed to understand and sat back down. And then proceeded to scream hysterically, to the point where nothing could be heard over him. I ended up calling the teacher to remove him. She didn't seem surprised at all. The rest of the class was relieved because they wanted to sing the song without earsplitting drama. The next Kindergarten class came in, carrying backpacks for dismissal. They took a huge amount of time to put the packs down and sit in a circle. We sang two songs and the teacher returned early, saying they need to be dismissed now. So, that class will be shortened each time, but I had no idea, so they missed most of the lesson.

I came home with an enormous headache, feeling icky about eating or drinking anything. The boys were napping so I took a two hour nap myself before dinner. I feel better tonight so we think the fish might not have been good or not kept well in my lunchbox.

The hours of this job are nice. I didn't have to leave until 8:30am this morning and I was home by 3:45pm. Tomorrow I have to leave home at 7:45am but I finish at 12:45pm on Tuesdays. Most of my days are 5 classes. It is a lot of traveling from my home to the initial school, but the rest of the schools are close to each other. So, the nice part is that I can still have Tuesdays to work on chorale work so I can keep my hand in the non-profit area. I did let go of one of my non-profit jobs and I will hold on to do the grants only for now.

Off to read and relax for a bit before bed.