And onto Week 8

I can't believe it's only been 8 weeks since I started teaching. It feels as if I've been teaching for 8 years. But it's a good thing it really has only been 8 weeks, because I am certainly not the kind of teacher an 8 year veteran should be!

Everyday, I wake up with more appreciation for the teachers who taught me and supplied me with the knowledge to grow into the person I am today. Everyday, I make my students search for appreciation within themselves for the teachers in their lives. No, I'm not being vain (thank me, students!), because I still don't feel like a teacher. I still feel like a volunteer or a substitute, just hangin' out until their real teacher comes back. It's not that I haven't immersed myself fully in the being a teacher thing, it's just that everyday I feel that the role of a teacher grows more and more and I can't possibly imagine myself holding such an important position. I wonder if this is how Barack Obama feels.

:)

So, as you can tell, it's nearly 6 am and have been awake since roughly 11 am. I really don't have this lesson planning, aligning to the standards thing down. That is one thing I wish our training would have stressed more. And thinking about it, there's a lot I really don't have down. My students took their first unit test and did not do stellar. However, the pretest scores were abysmal (22%) and at least they didn't fall below that. We are beginning unit 2 and I must be a better teacher. Many of my students have the potential to go to college and I want to help them get there.

If you wake up everyday with the reminder of what is on the line, it gets much easier to perform at your job.

So good morning, educators. Let's shape the children who shape the future today.