Alive, Awake, Alert, and Enthusiastic!

Scratch the alert and enthusiastic. College life + student teaching = no sleep. If I have to be up in front of the class, I’m alert and enthusiastic and my normal over-the-top-self. But if not, holy wow I am mentally exhausted. And being mentally tired is frustrating because I’m typically used to be physically tired. Physically I feel like I could run for days, but mentally I am in my bed by 7 pm. But I suppose that this is just an adjustment phase. I’m going to be tired, but I’m going to be used to it. The other part of student teaching that’s finally setting in is that this is real life. Like, this is really happening. I’m going to be here all day, everyday, all semester long. And then I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my career. (alright, that part doesn’t really bother me.) The part about being a college kid and a teacher at the same time does. All I want to do is socialize and procrastinate and live the college-kid dream…

Kids, don’t grow up. It’s a trap.

Bonus things!

•         One of my kids got hit in the eye while playing soccer yesterday. Today his eye is purple and literally swollen shut. He totally milked his injury and got out of wearing his glasses…  which he hates. Hmm. I see you working, kid.
•         I have had a lot more hugs from kids lately! It’s those quiet ones who sneak up on ya. They are just so stinking cute.
•         I’ve adopted a new punishment tactic/consequence. My kids write apology letters when they owe me time for recess. I love that they have to take ownership of their mistakes, apologize, plan how to fix their problem next time, and write a formal letter. They hate writing and missing recess. Genius? I think so.
•         To spice up my observed religion lesson for tomorrow, I asked my students to bring in personal photos from their baptisms. I have taken some of these pictures and incorporated them into a bulletin board (My very first one!) and plan on using the pictures (which were hung without sticky-tack, staple or push pin holes) during my lesson tomorrow. Making personal connections and a prettier classroom. Gosh, it’s like I went to college to get good at this… Weird.

Peace, love, and extra shots of espresso,

Jayna