Week 10

Well I am back in America!!

What an experience. I got home safely on Saturday night, slept for a while on Sunday, and got to Hoover Elementary early on Monday morning. It was quite the weekend of goodbye's and hello's and I am excited to get back into the swing of things in 5th grade!

This week was actually a lot easier than I expected. I was planning on being really jet lagged, and having a little bit of reverse culture shock. I was really surprised that I was pretty ok with both things. I was definitely tired, and my sleep was not normal, but I think all things considered it was good. I also found out that we only had three school days this week and on Thursday was parent teacher conferences and Friday was a teacher convention.

Monday was a good day until about 1:00. I was doing really well and the kids were happy to see me. In the morning I pretty much aided all day and helped out Mrs. Wiora. At about 1:00, I hit a wall and was just plain exhausted.

Tuesday was a rough day in 5th grade. We had 2 students suspended within the first 30 minutes of the day for bringing a plastic shock gum stick and shocking other students. That afternoon we worked on projects for a long time because they needed to get their career day posters done. Some students had them finished, but more than half had not started. They were all working, and most of them at least accomplished something.

Wednesday was another big work day. It is also nice to tell students that we want to show their parents the work they have done at parent teacher conferences. This is good motivation. Thursday we had parent teacher conferences from 1 till 8. I was really nervous for this even though I would be mostly observing. I was really intimidated by the thought of parents coming in and talking about their child. It was so good to see how Mrs. Wiora handled it. She really knows her students and she knows how they preform. It was good to hear a good mix of talking abut academics and behavior. She had a sheet with all of the data from tests that she showed the parents.

Mrs. Wiora said that even though she doesn't put too much into the test scores, since the school does them she wants to show the parents what the school is doing. It is nice to have something solid to talk about. She also did a really good job of starting with the good, moving into the not-so-good and then finishing with the good again.

Friday we had a conference in Tinley Park with 1,500 other teachers from the area. It was about diversity and it was really good. I just stuck with Mrs. Wiora and we went to two workshops and had  a nice lunch. It is funny to realize that teachers are sometimes just as bad as students with the chattiness!

Overall it was a good week and a nice week to come back to get adjusted. I look forward to next week with 4 days and then spring break!