My Kids

I realized today that my students really feel like "mine."  On Monday, three of them were running around the lunch room to get to the BBQ rib sandwiches as quickly as possible.  The other teachers glared at me like I was the mom at the mall who's letting their kid destroy a store display.  Without any hesitation at all, I sprang to action and had a conversation with them about it.  It feels good to be responsible for them because with that responsibility comes a whole lot of pride!  :)

Speaking of pride, tomorrow ALL of the kids in my class will finish their non-fiction books.  (And I will have finished teaching my TPA material.)  We (they) have been hard at work for almost two weeks.  They all found a topic that they were an expert on and haven't stopped since.  Besides the kids who have changed their topic three or four times (including two today who wrote first drafts that were completely unrelated to their previous work), they have moved through almost the entire writing process.  It has been fun to have those clarifying conversations where they ask you a question, you answer, and their face shows that they TOTALLY get it.  It sometimes means that you gave convoluted instructions in the first place (pretty sure I do this far more than I realize) but it always makes feel like a good teacher.

It seems crazy that it's almost November!!  How is that even possible?  I feel like my life has been busy and calm at the same time.  I have a lot to do but I can almost always do it on my own time.  I've had weekends filled with friends, family, and Badger football.  Can a girl ask for anything more?  Perhaps my rose-colored glasses will fade away over time, but for now, I'm rockin' em! 

PS.  We got our school pictures back today.  I had mine taken so that I could get a class composite picture, but it turns out teachers get a whole lot of them to take home.  Perhaps I'll be gracing the desks of my family members sometime soon ;)

All my love,
BT