My non-green thumb is actually growing something.

My good friend Latrice came to my classroom and gave the kids supplies for their plants.

In January she will return and re-pot them, when they are bigger we will donate them to our schools community garden.

Insights(9/30)

Today you showed me a little piece of who you really are. It was a brave and scary thing to do, for that I am proud of you. As I listened to you speak my heart was breaking with every word you spoke. I had to remind my self not to take it personally but how could I not, I gave my supplies…. pencils, notebooks, erasers, and most of all my heart. In return you ripped covers off of notebooks, broke apart erasers and stomped on my heart. What scares me is that you are unable to feel any remorse for your actions. After all, you said you didn’t think you needed to say your sorry, and you didn’t feel bad for what you did. What frightens me is how will you survive in this world, how will you make meaningful relationships? What is my role beyond your teacher in helping you to be a caring member of society?

Reflections

The first week is over; funny how a short week can feel like the longest. This year I get to only have two grades in my room, fourth and fifth, in my self-contained exceptional education classroom. I’m looking forward to being a little more focused and not so scattered. With only two grades my assistant and I can really do some directed teaching. The kids are higher functioning than some of my previous classes which is very exciting to me. I have a couple of kids that struggled all week with focusing issues. One child did not have medicine and boy, she was like a ping pong ball all day every day. The other child’s mother refuses to give medicine. I’m all about not rushing into medicine, but this poor child is all over the place. Needless to say, it was very stressful. My plan of action for next week is to change me and try to make some changes in my expectations.