Carried through the week

Despite being a tad bit upset on Monday and feeling discouraged, this week turned itself around and ended up being AWESOME!

It was the first five day week that I've had there so far because of all the crazy snow we've been getting. Don't get me wrong, I love snow days, BUT it felt just as good this week to get a solid routine down. It just helps me feel like I can breathe easier. I'm just that person that needs a routine.

Since we got a five day week in, I was able to teach my whole science unit on matter. :) The kids LOVED it. It helps that I did so many hands on things (which I could do because I had another teacher's hands to help), they really enjoyed everything. We sorted objects, looked at solids, liquids, made oobleck (corn starch and water), made ice cream, and did a sink/float experiment. They were sad that yesterday was our last day for the matter unit, but they had fun. On top of that they actually LEARNED! Ask those kids to name a solid or a liquid or to give an example of matter and they could do it with their eyes closed. =)

Basically all of the students that weren't quite warmed up to me at the beginning of this week, totally are now. They don't see me as a "student", to them I'm just their other teacher..which is nice.

Yesterday my teacher was out of the room all day, and there was a sub in her place..because of parent/teacher conferences. It was so nice because she let me sit in on some to see what they were like. So I was in and out. I taught reading in the morning and went to conferences until lunch.

It was so nice to hear some of the parents say "Oh, you're Miss ***..!, my child loves YOU!" Or..."OH I've heard a lot about you"...or "Yeah, he talks about you". I was thinking...so they like me..they really do..?? It made my heart so happy!

One of the mothers said "are you Miss ***?! Every morning my daughter says 'I want a braid today like Miss ***' or 'hair down today'." HA! I realized that I had said something to her daughter in passing one day when we had pretty much the SAME hairstyle. We had the SAME type of braid. I was like "oh *so and so* we have the same hair today!". She kind of smiled but didn't say much about it so I had no idea I had impacted her that much.
Isn't that so neat? It really made me realize how much what you say to these kiddos as a teacher, impacts them. You may never even know it, but what you say could be playing an important role for them. It made me smile inside. =]

Also- remember how I mentioned something about the superintendent coming this week..? Well I had emailed him to stop by and see my science lesson on Friday since he would be in the building. (It was a miracle that I got up that courage!) He in fact DID stop by for a few minutes yesterday. I was nervous, but nothing too out of proportion to the situation. When he came in I didn't even want to look at him because I was afraid to...haha. It's hard to say what he though, because I'm not even sure what it looked like to an onlooker. We'll see. I didn't feel REALLY great or not great about it either way.

I'm just SO glad it's the weekend! I slept in and it felt so nice. Lots of laying around and lesson planning on the schedule again. My wonderful mom also sent me a Valentine's package that I got yesterday when I came home from school. It has candy of course and SEASON 3 of ALIAS! Needless to say that's on the docket for this weekend as well. :)

I'm so thankful for the ways that God carried me this week and for the many blessings He is pouring on right now. I absolutely LOVE my cooperating teacher and the kiddos. It's been such a blessing. (I'll be so sad to leave them mid-march!)

Have happy weekend!