Teaching Takes A Village - Part I

Today I got into my classroom.  I am so grateful to my wonderful family for coming up to help me because with all of the things that have been going on in the last few weeks I am really feeling the pressure to get things in order.  Because I am moving to a new grade and a new classroom, I am really much more nervous than I have been in several years.  I have lots of great ideas, I've made some pretty concrete lesson plans, and I've managed to get some time with my co-teacher who is also changing grade-level (although the lucky duck gets to stay in her same room!)


I was kind of caught short by the need to head to Texas to help out a dear family member.  It was a true gift to have the time to spend with Chris, yet at the same time I began to really, really tense toward the end of the week as I realized how much I had yet to do and how little time was left.  I began searching the internet for ideas and printed pages and pages of center ideas, games, and activities.


While I was out of town my daughter, Gabrielle and my husband went to Home Depot and picked up some carpet for the room.  I asked them to get a couple of pieces of remnant carpet I had seen for around $70.00 when I first started thinking about setting up a reading-writing workshop and wanted to make a comfortable reading area for the kids.  Unfortunately, when they went up to get the carpet they found out that it would cost another significant chunk of change to bind the edges.  Total bummer.


What they got for me were three smaller rugs that give me more flexibility in how I can work out the grouping.  When we're working with the interactive whiteboard we can move the rugs there.  We can set up three separate areas for students to read, or write, or play games.  Great choice and an even better idea than the one I had.  I'm excited about the possibilities that I see opening.  


Gabrielle also organized the boxes and boxes and boxes of books I removed from the house.  Any time I manage to remove things from the house my husband is very happy.  And, because Gabrielle is a children's librarian my books were quickly organized.  While she was going through the books she shared some with her son, Joey, and Maya, my other daughter.  We got to laughing over "The Magic Schoolbus" book about the solar system because when Maya changed the number of planets in the solar system from nine to eight, Joey was quick to let her know that "we don't write in books."  Maya explained to him that because I was a teacher it was okay, and more than that it was necessary because the book was from the old days when there were nine planets, not eight like today!


David, my husband, put together the cool lamp I bought as well as putting things on high shelves, setting up desks and chairs, unrolling and moving rugs, and taking out the trash.  And I moved things from one spot to another trying to decide what is going to be most effective for the way I hope to teach this year.


All of this is to let people know that while teachers work hard, and possibly harder than many think, our families also put a lot of time and energy into helping up become the best teachers we can be.  For me, and for many teachers that I know, teaching is a labor of love.  Fortunately our families love us enough to give of their time and efforts so we can walk into our classroom each day knowing we are loved and helping us to remember that part of our job is to love our students when they are their most unloveable!