Exhausted.

I swear I'm still alive, but with the start of school, learning a new curriculum, and working 10+ hr days, I am just plain tired. As soon as I get home from work I eat (if I haven't picked up something on the way home and eaten it in the car already) and then try my hardest not to fall asleep until at least 9 (but am usually in and out around 7).

I will say I like first grade. It is so completely different than Head Start. The kids are older, more capable of doing different tasks, and (!) they can already write their names and answer questions. It's like jumping ahead to the middle of the year with my little 4 year olds. But even though they are capable of so much more, they still have those little kid quirks- chatting all the time, running in the classroom, forgetting to write their name on the paper after I gave the direction at least three times. These are things I didn't necessarily think I would have to deal with in this grade, but I am definitely able to respond to their needs and lay down the structure for their learning. Head Start gave me a lot of patience and it looks like I'll need to be using it this year.

My classroom is looking more and more like a normal room. The bulletin boards are still empty to display student work and name plates need to be added to the tables, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is what I started with:

And here's how it looks now (well as of last Friday, before the kids started):

I have so much to do over this long weekend (scoring, writing plans, prepping materials) in addition to the housework and errands that are a normal weekend occurrence. I just hope I don't drive myself crazy.