Friday, June 27, 2008

Summer...where art thou???

Can someone please remind me what in God's name made me sign up to teach summer school this year? I mean, did I somehow get into a phase of self-afflicting pain? Did I not think that the past year was not as bad as I thought? How could the desire to catch up on much needed sleep that I've been dreaming about for the last ten months be forgotten? How?! Why?!

This past week has seemed like an eternity. Summer school JUST started...and I seriously can't believe how relieved I am that it's Friday.

IT'S ONLY THE FIRST WEEK!!!

And I've got five...FIVE...more weeks to go...

I'll admit...the incoming 3rd graders are totally adorable. Not only are they teeny tiny, but they are genuinely sweet. You can definitely see that sweet innocence in them and that truly reminds me of why I love working with young kids. Yesterday, we went on our first field trip to the Exploratorium. Ya'll know that the Exploratorium rocks, right? As many times as I've gone there, I still find myself amazed. Now if I feel like that, what more for an 8-year old kid, yah? One of my little boys called for me, "Miss MnM! Miss MnM! Come here, you HAVE to see this!"...all the while grabbing my hand and dragging me across to a particular exhibit. It was adorable! This one boy is a total cutie pie...and I was somewhat bummed to learn that he only attends Cornerstone for the summer program; for the regular school year, he goes somewhere else. That's the case for quite a few of the kids and it's the case for the ones that anyone would want in their class. Awwww....

For the summer school program, I'm teaching Reading/History/Writing for half a day. Basically, I teach the same thing to two 3rd grade classes. Plus, there's no homework and no tests.

So...what's so terrible about it? Well, okay...not much. I think because this is my first time teaching grade school summer school that it's more work than I anticipated. There are no lesson plans to follow, no particular curriculum set, and I bascially have the freedom to choose what I want to teach. Sounds simple, but it's not. I didn't really have time to do research and prepare since the regular school year let out. Once school was done, I went to Catalina. After Catalina, I got sick. Before I knew it, summer school started...and btw, I'm STILL sick! (I've felt like I'm dying actually...yah, yah, I do need to see a doctor...). This sounds awful, but I feel like I am just teaching on the fly. I hate being this unprepared and at the same time, it's somewhat difficult for me to pinpoint specifically what I want to teach in just six weeks. Maybe it's 'cuz I'm still way under the weather to be in the right state of mind to plan. Sickness and meds can do that to someone, eh?

In any case, thank God it's Friday! Annnnnd....next week is a short week with 4th of July coming up- WERD!

Ahhhh...'tis sad really. I've spent the entire school year counting down the days until summer. Now that it IS summer, I'm slowly counting down the days until summer school is over. *sigh* It's not that bad, I admit, but I think I actually miss sleep.

One week down...five more to go....

MnM's Shout-Outs

*To the David-Gomes fam- congratulations and welcome to baby Kairo! My lil' cousin and our newest addition to our fam, Kairo came into the world on the "happiest day of the year"- June 20. Proud mama is doin' fine...

*To the Chiu fam- Mrs. Eri gave birth to a baby boy, Darren, the same day as my auntie! Love and congratulations...

*To baby Lauren...happy 7-month birthday! love from your favorite auntie....

*To E: happy belated birthday!

*To J: yah, it's cheesy...and??? Lol...c'mon now, be happy for me, won't you, homie? ;-)

*To the Music Maestro: hi sweets...miss you! <3

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