Our First Week of School

It's early Saturday morning.... I should be sleeping, but my body won't relax and my mind is thinking of a million things that need to be done today....so the first of 2487 loads of laundry that need to be done is in the washer, the dish washer is working overtime to catch up on the pile created from throwing lunch dishes and dinner pans on top of each other and my grade book is out ready to record grades for the first assignment of the year!

What a week it has been....to sum it up in a couple words...Exhausting. Energizing. Emotional. Exactly where I'm suppose to be!

Tuesday morning I work up and left the house before anyone else was awake...Mae has been such a trooper - sleeping most of the night and waking for a brief moment before falling back asleep in her car seat on the way to daycare. It was the first time I didn't drop the boys off at school on their first day of school - that was rough. But daddy pulled through and sent me a picture of our third grader and first grader! Plus we attend a pretty awesome school where several other moms captured their first day for me. It takes a village!

The boys were excited to see friends and wear their new school clothes. It started off a busy week trying to get into a new routine of having daddy drop them off. It's awesome for Jesse to spend some time with the boys in the morning and helping the boys become more independent. Yet for me, it's hard not being the last voice they hear before they head into school. I took that for granted...now it's a quick kiss while they sleep as I slip out of the house in the morning. Yet, evenings were fun catching up on their day in between running to soccer practices and getting ready for the next morning. Gauger even lost his second tooth this week while brushing his teeth! I'd say the boys had a great start to their school year!

Gunner & Gauge - 2015

Thanks to Ms. Melissa for capturing Gunner & friends.

And despite their whining, Mrs. Judge grabbed a couple pics for me! 

My first week of school started off with an assembly....I grew up a Shark, went on to be a Spartan, now am a Blue Jay mom and was introduced Tuesday as a Huskie teacher to a gym full of students I would soon be meeting! I just prayed as I walked across the gym floor that I didn't trip over my feet :) Thankfully, the entire staff at Breckenridge HS/MS have been amazing - very welcoming and encouraging and I'm pretty sure if I would have fell they would have helped me up and made it look like we had all planned it :). 

My class schedule allows me to interact with seventh graders up to seniors. I teach a general agriscience/FFA class, then a full class of Botany, two classes of Zoology, an Alternative Education Ecology class and I wrap up with an Ag Leadership/Ecology class of upperclassmen. Students who take Botany one year and Zoology the next year receive a Biology credit. A majority of my students also participate in FFA. Follow us on Facebook if you get a second - you'll be able to see everything we're up to! 

For the first week, we spent our time getting to know each other. Every student made a PowerPoint telling me a little bit about themselves, but also so I could see what they knew about setting up a presentation....because much like real life, they'll be working in groups and should know how to form their thoughts and present them to others. We finished up the week with marshmallows and toothpicks....building teamwork skills while building the tallest, freestanding structure. 

Using our shop for labs, the students worked in teams...possibly some future engineers!

As fun as the first week was, it was also filled with a ton learning experiences...more for me than the students. 

My major take away from the week....I can't control every moment in the classroom. Ideally, I thought I'd teach, share the assignment and then they would ask me a ton of questions and want me to be right there showing them...kinda like how a new parent thinks their baby will always want them to hold their hand.......naive, but with good intentions.I was reminded, quoted from a friend & fellow teacher, I can teach them what to eat, why to eat and what to eat, but they need to actually  chew their own food". I realize this seems like common sense, but man it's hard to not hover! 

When I left yesterday, I thought how great the first week had went but I'm trying to keep in perspective it was still the honeymoon, new teacher, new school year phase. For my very first week of teaching, I'm going to say it was a win....and as much as I hope my students learn from me, I'm sure they'll be teaching me more than they will ever realize.....

And now I'm off to tackle a house that may have accumulated more dirty dishes and clothes than I realized we had.....

Our first day of school picture! My mom even gave me lunch money. :)! 

p.s. Thanks so much for the texts, phone calls, emails and messages this week. It's so awesome doing life with all of you!