Good Day

Well today was a pretty good day, and a good start to the week.  I started off my day doing a lesson with one of the younger boys in my class.  I think that he must have had sugar for breakfast or something because he wanted to sing everything.  I don't just mean that he wanted to sing songs, I mean that he wanted to say everything like it was a song.  He was saying everything in a sing-song voice when he talked and it was just hilarious.  I had to try to keep myself from laughing a couple of times because I didn't want to egg him on too much.  It's always nice to start out the day with students who are in a really good mood because it puts me in a good mood too. 

Meltdowns/shutdowns were also very minimal today (hallelujah!).  There were certainly some students who got upset over different things throughout the day, but we didn't really have any big meltdowns, which was wonderful. 

Today was also the very first day of play practice for the school's Christmas program.  It takes time out of the end of the day, but I think projects like this are good for them to do.  It was fun to hear everyone read through the play for the first time.  Their play this year is about Santa and his reindeer getting caught in a time warp and traveling back in time to the dinosaurs and teaching them about Christmas.  It's a cute little play.  It's weird to hear people saying Merry Christmas already, but I don't mind.  I love Christmas!  It's going to be fun watching them practice their lines every day.  They seemed a little shy about acting today, but I bet they will get into it more as they learn their lines.  

Everyone else (the special ed. teachers and the principal) arrived today, but people weren't really in and out of the classroom as much as I thought they would be, so there weren't too many disruptions.  It sounds like the new teacher and his wife will be in the class tomorrow to observe how Reading Mastery lessons work, so I'll be ready for that.  It's always easier to keep the kids working and on task when there are more eyes on them.

I had a chance to talk to the principal of the school this afternoon.  She is principal of several of the schools in the district and travels around to each of them.  She told me how she had heard I was doing a good job (which made me feel good) and we talked about the struggles/challenges/joys of bush teaching for a while.  It was a nice little chat, and it's always nice, of course, to hear that good things are being said about you to the principal.   

Apparently there aren't really as many people here as I thought there were going to be, so I don't think that I am going to have to share my apartment with anyone this week.  I was actually kind of looking forward to having some company, but oh well.  I suppose if there was someone else in my apartment with me then I would have to give up singing and dancing around in my pajamas when I get ready for bed at night, and who wants to do that? ;-)  It will still be nice to have some more people in the school this week.  Plus, the new teacher and his family live just down the hall from me now, so at least I'm not alone in my hallway anymore.

Tomorrow evening is the potluck, which I am very excited about, and the kids are really excited too.  I plan to cook up a bunch of the food that I need to get rid of before I leave and share it with the people in the village.  It will definitely help me to clear out some of the things left in my pantry/fridge/freezer.  Speaking of which, I guess I better get back to my apartment to start making up the rest of my tollhouse cookies from my cookie dough.  I won't have that much time tomorrow afternoon to make them.

Well, I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.....if I have the time that is.  I want to get a walk in after school since I only have so many days left to do that, and I need to cook some of my food before the potluck, so come to think of it.........you might not hear from me again until Wednesday.  Toodles!