Have I mentioned how much I love my job? laughing softly

I really do, though. I have a really good bunch of kids this year. They are what we refer to as "sweet 'n lows". They are good kids - nice, sweet, mostly thoughtful. However, they are sooooooo low in academic abilities.

We checked back to last year's schedule to see what we had been doing at "this time of the year" with last year's kids (who we thought were significantly slow in their work and catching on to concepts.) Well, I will use this one thing as an example, as it pretty much exemplifies my point.

Last year, by the end of second quarter, we were on page 28 in our Social Studies student workbooks. This year? Page 4. Yep, you read that correctly. That is a significantly less amount of work!

Needless to say, we are always feeling like we are playing catch-up. but you know what? The kids are learning, and that is really important. They are mugh further along in their abilities than they were when they started. It's so great to see how far some of them have actually come! We get done what we get done. We work on what we can work on. I try not to focus too much on "where we should be by now" because it will drive only send me to the loony bin!

Have I mentioned yet how much I love my job!!

I really do. It is so rewarding. I have a student who is in the Resource program - he is significantly below grade level and gets some extra help; it's a Special Education kind of program. I just talked with his mother today, who was helping out the teacher of her kindergardner, my student's little sister. Anyway, I was discussing a bit of a behavior problem that I was made aware of, and we went on to talk about how much her son is learning this year, and how far he has come. He can now add and subract on his own, do his 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's in multiplication. His writing has also dramatically improved. Yes, he is still way below third grade, but he's not AS far below as he was when he started this year. His mother also told me today how much he loved his class and his teacher - that would be me! We sometimes switch classes, rotating the kids around as I teach one thing to all three classes, and the other two teachers do the same. We are currently doing that with Science. Well, he told his mother that he had fun in Mrs. T's class, but he really missed me! Awwwwwwwww... *melting heart*

Today I am really just babbling. I'm kind of unwinding here at school. But sitting down and writing this out really helps me to keep my focus. Although we are way behind...we have a ton of stuff to finish... and the end of school is drawing near.... I can sit here and honestly say that I love to come here every day. I love teaching these kids what they need to know. I enjoy their company. I adore playing with them. I adore them full stop!