Things I Have Learned During the First Months of Teaching

I have already learned an abundant amount during these past couple weeks. But, for my memory and hopefully many years to come in the classroom, I can look back on this as just the beginning.

Things I have learned in my first few weeks of teaching:

1. No matter how bad the previous day was, the next morning I always have 18 smiling children excited to see me and come to school AND that truly makes my day! :)

2. Hugs and praise are more powerful than I ever thought possibly!

3. Candy can get my children to do anything---now my goal is to get them to do it for the grade and not the candy. (It's trickier than you might think lol)

4. Children are a product of their home-life. Without getting into the details; if the parents can't read basic site words, or solve basic addition problems, than the child has little or no help at home with homework. It makes my job more important, because it is my job, duty and honor (REALLY!) to make sure that child does better than their parent did.

5. A team of teachers working together can get a whole lot more accomplished than that one teacher who works by themselves. (More on that later) --- I LOVE MY TEAM!!! :) -Pictures to come later

6. Whole Brain Teaching is a fun and exciting way to get your children involved in all aspects of your classroom. But, it takes time for them (and myself) to get use to the routine and procedures of it! 

7. Whoever said teachers and school staff don't gossip is lying!! It can be hurtful because now I never know who is saying stuff about me; I just choose to not think about it! But, I do catch myself saying stuff as well, and I'm really trying hard not too and maybe it's just the after effect of spending 7 hours with six year olds! lol

8. I do have a 'mean' or 'you know what you did' teacher look. I swear I thought I never had one, but I have 'that' look AND 'that' voice too! (Hey, it needs to be spoken more than once in awhile!)

9. Behavior charts are a MUST for those bad habits or behaviors that need to be broken. They have saved my sanity!

10. Crying children and untied shoes are a daily occurrence in my classroom.

11. Paperclips, a laminator, Velcro dots/strips and sticky tack are a teacher’s best friend!

12. In these past 7 weeks, I’ve solidified the fact that this is what I want to be doing for the next 50 years! The only thing I am unsure of is, if I want to teach 1st grade for the rest of my career. We'll see...

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I know mine is! :)