The first week is over. I loved the actual work. I ended up working with just first grade and some fourth graders. These are the children who tested very low on the dibbles test. They also had trouble in their third grade class. I will only be working with the fourth grade for three weeks. I was disturbed at first, because I had not worked with fourth at all except for two months in New Iberia. I consider that to mean “I have not worked with 4th grade”. I almost had a nervous breakdown to over it. ” You wonder why. Well, the majority of the children in the class were bigger than I. One had even been picked up by the police. I did not question it, but tried my very best to deal with them. I felt like a shrew the entire time. I was lucky to have a principal, that understood that I was working in an area that I was not prepared to teach. He assisted me in getting a job in a Kindergarten after two months. The amazing thing was that when the children found that I was leaving, they wanted to give me a party. I even received a few presents. It touched me and made me realize that for some reason, they did have respect for me. I knew then that I had chosen the correct profession and that maybe I had been a positive influence with some of them.
I digress. I did start out with mixed feelings about the fourth graders, but these quickly disappeared after this week. I will miss them when I have to let them go. I will also worry that they will not have enough reinforcement to help them pass the Leap test in the Spring. I think the main difference with the children is that I knew them either when they were in kindergarten or around the school.
The groups of first graders I am teaching are the ones that almost passed the test and some that did not. There are really only three children that showed some promise on the test. We hope that with a little help this group will be able to pass the test and go on. I have eight groups of children. Three sets of fourth graders and five sets of first graders.
I do have lunch by myself, and am enjoying it. I sit in my little room and enjoy the peace and listen to Enya. Both Elaine and I are lucky because of this. So this has shown some promise to be a good year.