I'm On My Way...

I believe it was Paul Simon who wrote the lyrics "I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going." As we finish up this week, I realize that starting next week I'll have taken over every subject except math. So, I am well on my way to full time teaching. However, I am unsure of what to expect in the weeks ahead. These are the same thoughts I had the very first week, and every week thereafter. I have made it this far, I've had my good days (like when Germaine finially started to understand that the vowel sound in CVC words is in the middle), and I have definitely had my bad days (like when Michael threw up all over the place while Mrs. Karr was taking a note to the office----By the way, I handled that suprisingly well!)
Action Research is well on its way too. When I interview Hayden tomorrow I will have completed my first round of student interviews and so far, I have not seen any sign of the students using quick images, or start with/get to to help them answer number sentences. But they are using the dot configirations to represent numbers!
Yesterday was a difficult day for me. Ms. Karr was working on the 5 year plan so I had a substitute. I have nothing against substitutes, however, the never act as good when a substitute is here as when Ms. Karr is here. The sub kept telling me not to worry about it because this is a tough group, but I frustrates me because I know this group of children can behave and act appropriatly when they want to be. That just never happens to be when there is a sub here.
One last thing before I sign out-- the incident of the skanky sock must be shared! Just before we were about to play tap and clap with our spelling words today, just after we came back in from the bathroom, there appeared a dirty smelly sock underneath Damarian's desk. I would have never noticed had Thomas not raised his hand to ask me, "Where did that sock come from under his desk?" Ask he points to Damarian. I asked Damarian if the sock was his and it didn't surprise me when he said no. I thought to myself, dumb question Ms. Burns, what kid in their right mind would claim this nasty thing. So I did what any 'good teacher' would do. I picked it up and threw it in the trash can. Problem solved! Not another word was spoken about it. Needless to say, there is a kid running around this school somewhere with a skanky, unmated sock!