Sunday, August 25, 2013

the first weeks.

I'm not even going to lie a little bit.

The first week of school was ROUGH. Like really, really rough. Rough like I came home crying one night.

This is definitely the lowest class academically that I've gotten at the beginning of the year. The only kids who even know how to write their name are the 5 kids out of 18 who went to preschool. So I've been freaking out a little. I've had to go back and find preschool stuff for us to work on, which is frightening.

Another rough factor is the behavior. Kindergarten behavior is always rough at the beginning of the year, but this is by far the toughest class behaviorally as well that I've ever had at the beginning. There was one time during the first week that we were taking a bathroom break and literally SIX out of the 16 kids that were there were throwing a fit. Like screaming, jumping up and down fits...in the middle of the hallway. I was mortified.

I've been told by the principal that everyone in the office understands that I have the roughest class in the building right now. She also told me I have two of the most challenging students. One of them is incredibly defiant and tells me to "shut up" on a daily basis. He's been violent toward the other students, and has been sent to the office multiple times. The other is a little boy who is almost completely nonverbal, and has never been socialized. He's literally never been around another child. He won't speak, won't eat, and won't use the bathroom, among lots of other issues that I won't get into right now.

Needless to say, it's been a tough two weeks.

But it's SLOWLY getting better. I'm working my butt off to teach them how to function in a school setting. I'm working with them on how to walk in a line, how to use the bathroom correctly, how to act during a lesson, etc. And I'm finding that each day, I have to raise my voice less and less. It's slow going, and has been really discouraging at times, but we ARE making progress.

This past week, I got the first, "I love you, Mrs. Miller," of the year. I've started getting the million hugs a day. I'm beginning to get greeted with smiles instead of tears in the mornings. I've also been able to teach several whole lessons without losing my voice. And my favorite: the funny things they do and say that I get to go home and tell Ty all about are beginning to happen. We're slowly but surely building our little family. The family that will go through a LOT together in the next 10 months. And while it's been incredibly difficult these last two weeks, I'm positive that within a couple more weeks, it'll be smooth sailing. A couple prayers wouldn't hurt though!

xoxo, wife.

1 comment:

  1. You're one of the best teachers ever, and the best one I've been married to! ;)

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