I have officially survived my first week of school as a real teacher. Monday was crazy because I met all 421 of my students and saw each class for 10 minutes. There were a lot of questions like "who are you, what happened to our old music teacher, and what grade are you in?" After school got out on Monday I was completely overwhelmed and exhausted. Thankfully I had the day off on Tuesday to recover and regroup. Wednesday was probably the worst day of the week because I had not prepared enough material to cover an entire 45 minute class for the younger grades. I forgot, from teaching high school all last semester, that the students need to be changing direction every 15 minutes or so, or else they go crazy. I spent a long time on Wednesday evening reflecting and over-planning for the next days lesson. Thursday went much smoother and I left the school feeling energized and excited about the next day. Friday was crazy because they were setting up for the after school picnic/carnival right outside my window and they decided that during my first grade class was a good time to set up the bouncy house (and plug the extension cord to it into my classroom). Clearly these people were not teachers.
Some of the things that I have been teaching are warm-ups, proper classroom behavior, rhythm (macro beat vs. micro beats), the history and lyrics of the star spangled banner, "Here Comes a Bluebird", rhythm machine, and my all-time favorite cheer "I said a Boom Chicka Boom". I always do this cheer at the end of the lesson because it gets the students up and moving and I can do "I said a boom chicka boom" really quietly as I direct them to the door to settle them down. I have also stolen a fantastic lining up song from one of the first grade teachers that I am teaching to each of my classes. It is to the tune of Yankee Doodle and goes "My hands are hanging by my sides, I'm standing straight and tall. My eyes are looking straight ahead, I'm ready for the hall". I find myself singing this every time I leave the classroom and it really helps the students calm down and prepare to walk quietly in the hallway from my class.
Since each grade level has three classes, they are divided up into groups A, B, and C. This past week I saw group B and next week I will see group A so I will not see group B again for 2 weeks. I like this schedule better though than only seeing each class once a week because I felt like I had accomplished more and gotten to know each student better this way. Dan and I attended the after school picnic on Friday which was really great to see all of the students and meet parents. Everyone seems to have very positive things to say and all of the students seem to really like me. I hope it stays this way :)
Dan has been job searching all week and got a job at a local Deli :) I'm sure he's going to enjoy making sandwiches, wraps, and salads for people rather than serving greasy mexican food like he was at Monterray. He also applied to a few jobs on DU's campus so hopefully he will hear back from them soon. It will be rather weird to work all day and then have Dan work during the evenings and weekends. The deli is not open on Sundays so I guess we'll have one day to go on our adventures :) Dan is anxious for classes to start and excited to be challenged in a way he never was in his undergrad. I'm sure I'll be learning about a lot of experimental films and such this year, just as Dan will be learning lots of elementary music songs.
The weather has been consistently hot and sunny and we are hoping for some cooler weather to come our way, especially since our pool is closing after labor day. My fall wardrobe is ready to be worn, especially because my classroom is so cold! Tomorrow my choirs are singing at the Colorado Rockies game so that should be fun! We are taking the light-rail down to the game, singing the national anthem, and then staying for the game. The game is against the LA Dodgers and I don't think the Rockies stand a chance, they are pretty bad. If only they were in the same league as the Tigers...
Until next week...
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