Hello Weekend!!!

If there's one thing I've learned about being a teacher, it's that there is no tired like first week of school tired.  And, praise The Lord that there was only two days this week that we had students.  Because, even though I am absolutely ecstatic about my new class, getting back in to the grind of teaching is EXHAUSTING.  

I'm so glad that it's the weekend.  Two days to rest.  Well, that's what I thought I'd get, but there's never really much time to rest once the school year starts back up.  There's laundry to do, groceries to buy, lesson plans to write, and unit plans to prepare for.  There's not really much time to "rest", but I can at least unwind and recharge.  

Last night, I was in bed by 8PM and slept for 12 full hours.  That's tired.  I don't remember the last time I slept that much... oh, maybe when I was sick.   But, I must have needed the sleep.

The first two days were amazing, though.  My new kiddos are awesome.  They are polite, and sweet, and seem really eager to have a great 4th grade year.  That's always a great sign of how the year will play out.  When they wrote their first journal entry about what they are scared and excited about this upcoming year, almost all of them wrote they weren't scared about much but they were super excited to learn.  Hello?  Music to a teacher's ears!!  

This first coming full week is going to tell me a lot about my students.  We'll do a lot of pretests and placement tests, so I can get a better understanding of the needs they have.  When I told them about the first project we're going to be doing, they were super excited.  We're going to be starting a unit about cultures.  We will read Charlotte's Web as our first novel study, and it really has a great message about accepting others, and being friends with people who are different.  There's a real connection that I can make about different cultures and lifestyles, being friends with people you wouldn't expect to be friends with, and helping each other overcome struggles.  Perfect for a beginning of school year project.

Included in that unit, we'll learn about plant versus animal cells in science - another way of connecting the dots for things that are different, but still share commonalities.  In social studies, we're going to start with Prehistoric Missouri and will be looking at the changes Missouri made over the first few centuries, the cultures of long ago and the cultures of early Missouri.  In math, we'll be starting with place value.  I can even attach that to my culture unit by talking about how numbers have their own individual place, but work together to create bigger numbers.  It's all very exciting.  

Something else that's taking place this weekend that is very exciting is going to pick up Jelly's new kitten.  She quickly decided that she's ready for another kitten.  I don't blame her.  She got so attached to Gizmo being by her side every minute of every day, she feels so lonely.  She doesn't like sleeping in her own bed and even playing in her room feels weird to her, because Gizmo isn't there to keep her company.  Even though she only had Gimzo for a couple of months, it was enough time for her to get used to having that companion with her.  So, one of my friends from high school posted that she has some kittens ready to go - and I've set it up that Jelly will be able to bring him home today.  He's healthy, has been inside since he's been born, and should be a great addition to the family.  But, as Jelly has said...addition, not replacement.  

I am so glad our lives can all start getting back to normal.  It's normal for me to be exhausted and busy.  Butter has already started football practice, so I'm at the school until 5:15 every evening.  It's a great time for me to go through any stacks of paper that's piled up, and stick to my plan of keeping my room decluttered.  I also plan on using that time to grade papers and do anything that minimizes the amount of time I have to spend working on the weekends.  Because, that's another thing I want to try this year...not spending so much time working on the weekends.  We'll see how that goes.

But, if I plan on getting everything done THIS weekend, and still having time to relax, I should probably get to getting.  So much to do, so little time.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!!