Calm (before the storm?)

Recent classroom pictures!...

On the first full day of school...Mountain Math & Language on board, folders ready to be passed out!

Boggle: A great morning work or literacy center activity! I used magnetic letters I had and put them on my white board.

My wall of 200 things for early finishers to do. Credit: myfunteacher.com. PDF here!

This has been a very productive, restful, and prayerful weekend. After a great Saturday of not having to go to school to do work of some sort, I really think that was needed. I planned for this week, but just the sheer fact that I could spend an entire day away from my room was amazing. I'm a workaholic if you don't know me. So I did think for a split-second about going yesterday to do __, ___, and ___. But then I knew ___, ___, and ___ could wait till today or Monday. Not Saturday. Not my one day of rest and relaxation. Well, I rested and relaxed as much as I could, but I still had brought home 5 teacher editions of our textbooks for each subject to plan. Some clarity has arose, but you never truly know until the day of and how your kids are feeling at the time.

This week we begin team teaching for reading & language and math. So the real work begins! This week also marks the first week of giving students homework. Which also means the paperwork will be rolling in quickly, which means I need to stay on top of my organization game! I must say I'm quite proud of how organized I'm becoming...my OCD roommate Marinne from last year would be so proud!

Overall, there is a certain calmness within me tonight. I should probably be going to bed right about now in preparation for the five-day streak of five a.m.'s. I've been so encouraged by the teachers I work with, my friends from Knoxville, my kids, and the families I'm partnering with this year to help their children succeed. Not to mention God is so faithful. I've been thinking about this Scripture a lot this past week, and I know this is a memory verse for each day of this year of teaching. When I feel tired and weak and not in control of anything in my life, I know He's in control.

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." -Job 42:2

I've also been thinking about this year and how He has used certain things that were unclear to me (or maybe still unclear) as to why things turned out a specific way. When you've been working in your classroom for 3 hours after teaching for 8 hours straight, your mind (maybe it's just mine) begins to wonder just how you got this far. It was about 2 months ago that I got this third grade job offer. Only 3 months ago I graduated with my Master's. Five months ago I was stressing over internship stuff. How did I get to this point? It's surreal sometimes. And then I think about friendships-- those that I have grown to love, deepen, and invest time in, as opposed to those that have disintegrated. Yeah, that's a harsh word to describe relationships, but it's true. I have learned that friends are easy to find, but close friends are like family. And with family, you never want to let them go, and they never want to let you go.

So again, I feel content about this week. It will be draining, I'm sure. I also feel I have been rambling on these most recent posts. I think it's because I have way to much to think about doing right now and there's no filtering or editing a blog post when I have to create lesson plans/foldables/sub tub stuff.

Have a great week, whether you're a friend, fellow teacher, stranger...