It is the fifth week of school and I find myself still
baring the “Mean Ms. P” fangs. I
miss my own smile. The beginning of the
year always begins with a stricter-than-usual version of myself, which pays off
later when the classroom is running smoothly and learning becomes fun for
everyone. This year I have a unique
group of students consisting of 75 percent only children or youngest children
in the family. With this dynamic, my
cheery disposition has been set aside a bit longer than I find
comfortable. This week I found myself
pulling new ideas out of my ever-increasing hat of tricks. “Life lessons with Ms. P” was my latest
invention. Our first lesson: Doing
Things You Don’t Want to Do. Through
discussion we created an anchor chart, students shared their ideas, and we
wrote them down. Some of my favorites
included “it’s for your own good” and “zip it”.
After our discussion and repeatedly revisiting the chart throughout the
week, as well as little notes of encouragement, I began to see progress.
This group of children will learn and grow just like their
predecessors I see in the halls each day, waving and smiling at me. This year we will laugh, cry, have problems,
solve them, get a little messy and become a team. We will learn multiplication and reading
comprehension skills. We will write our
first chapter books and jump with excitement during the Times Table Hockey
Tournament. It will be another great
year.
And so I start my fourteenth year of teaching, knowing it
will be special. I will teach
differently than I did the year before.
I will learn new things. I will
be exhausted and get sick. I will have
mornings I don’t want to get out of bed.
I will have nights when I dream lesson plans. I will have a blast doing the best job in the
world and “Life lessons with Ms. P” will have been worth all the extra
effort. If not, Fall Break is just
around the corner.
