I am pooped! Rambling and some freebies

The other night I came home from work frustrated and in tears. I have felt extremely overwhelmed and exhausted since school started. I have some challenges this year. My husband is amazing and always knows the right thing to say to me. After I complained for about 20 minutes, he told me, "Yeah, I know it sucks right now. But there are students that are in your class for a reason. Things don't always happen by chance. There are students in your class that were meant to be in your class because they need you--they need your personality, your style of teaching, and they need you to be patient with them and to teach them in a way that no one else can."

So, I try to remember that when I have the same few students missing recess every day because they play around instead of do their work during class. Or when I have to go hunt a student down in the bathroom because they have been gone for 15 minutes and find that they have been covering the floor in soap bubbles. Or on those crazy days when EVERYONE (even the normally quiet ones) act like they were fed pure sugar for breakfast that morning.

I love my students. I really do. I have some adorable, wonderful kids this year. But I also have 30 of them. It's just too many! And considering that about 4 or 5 of them are high energy and demand my constant attention and redirection all day, when the bell rings at 3:30, I feel like this...

Source: Melonheadz Illustrating

But it's okay. They will learn. They will improve and (hopefully) learn to make better choices.

I got a new student the other day and she is DARLING. However, she has had basically no exposure to school and is lacking so many skills in so many different areas. She doesn't know any of her letters/sounds. Doesn't know her numbers. Can't trace letters. Doesn't speak in complete sentences. She also has no idea how she's supposed to behave in school. Taking her shoes off every few minutes, gluing paper to the wall, taking a paper off my desk and cutting it into pieces, scribbling on other people's papers....these are just a few examples :) But how can you get frustrated with someone for gluing paper on the wall when they have probably never even seen a glue stick before? You can't. It's not her fault at all. She has so much to learn and she WANTS to learn. Seriously guys, she is so excited to learn new things. I helped her trace a capital A then had her try it by herself. Even though it was not even CLOSE to looking like the letter A, she ran up to me with her paper and said "Look! Me did it! Me did it!" So stinkin' cute. And my kids are so cute with her. They are so sweet and try to help her. I just wish I could give her more one-on-one attention. That's what she needs.

One of my goals is to have her be able to write her name. I found these GREAT worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler I will be using with her. I love how they have you practice the different strokes first, then put them together to write the letter. Click the picture below to take you to the website for a free download!

This is a behavior chart I'm using with a different student. Every time we are doing something independently (silent reading, DOL, handwriting books, etc.) I give him a smiley face or a straight face depending on how well he stays on task (I don't like frown faces...I RARELY give those). The bathroom has been an issue too so I time him every time he goes to the bathroom. His goal is 5 minutes or less in the bathroom and only going 3 times during the day. He takes it home and his awesome mom handles the rewards/punishments.

Click the picture below to grab it!

Well, friends, I'm out. Enjoy the nice, long, 3 day weekend!
Jackie