Will this week ever be over??? :0) Tom's Shoes, Day in the Life of a Second Grade Teacher

Here I am today, no bargains, just comfortable.  I am wearing my new Tom's boots (see below) 

Attention Followers:
I have heard that you are not getting email notifications, I'm hoping that has been fixed.  There should be a button that you can click to subscribe.  I also send notifications via FB.  If you are not my Facebook friend, you can send a request to me: Patty McCuiston Johnson.  Let me know if this works!!

Tom's Shoes:

Have you heard of Tom's shoes???  When you buy a pair, they give a pair to a needy person in poor country.  This Christmas, I got my fourth pair, a pair of lace-up botas.   (boots)  They are so comfortable!  I even did Zumba in them.  I am going to try to include a link, if I'm able.








My Tom's bracelet reminds me daily of how blessed I am compared to the people in Honduras.  It helps me to keep my "head on straight".



 http://www.toms.com/



















A Day in the Life of a Second Grade Teacher (I will try to keep this in phrases, because I'm tired! ;) ) How many of you get this much accomplished before 10:00??Ha ha, I don't get a tenth of this much done when I am at home.

4:45-7:00 (Read Bible, eat breakfast, feed & walk dog, get dressed, read for fun)
7:00-7:30 Drive
7:30-8:00 (Answer emails, run worksheets for homework, talk to co-workers, etc.)
8:00-8:30 Wellness committee meeting
8:30-8:50  Greet students, Take attendance, Get students started in their work
8:50-9:10  Give Spelling Pretest, While giving Spelling test, I also: (checked through their homework folders, reply to emails, quieten (is that a word) students who are talking)



Needless to say this test was hard to grade!!!! :(



*I say the word , then say it in a sentence, then repeat this at least two more times.  We are going along pretty well and one of my more inattentive, immature students asks, "What was numbers 10, 11, and 12?"   :/

9:10-9:20 Reading: I then put them with partner and they read their story.  I grade their Spelling Pre-Test.  I send them home today because if they don't make a 100%, they can retake it tomorrow.
From 9:20-10:00 I: monitored behavior (second graders can be known to goof off), sent a child to the nurse, graded their Spelling papers, moved a child over to read to me because he was crawling around the room and bothering others, help a child look for their library pass, put their graded work in their homework folders, help children sound out words, remind children to read in their head or "whisper read", help someone who got on the wrong test on the computer, congratulated a sweet girl who passed her first Reading Counts test on a chapter book (chapter books are a big deal to second graders!)

My desk soon looks like this!

Side note:  I have a sharp little girl who is really struggling with reading.  She has trouble figuring out the easiest words.  During reading, she came up several times to ask me a word.  She came up and asked me the word "harvest", I have the students cover up the last part of the word.  I asked her what the word was and she said, "her", I wrote the word, "car" and asked her what it was.  She knew "car".  So, I said if that is "car" what is "har", She got it!!  Then she was able to sound out the rest of the word.  I am opening that with lots of attention and help, she will gain the confidence that she needs to become a better reader. 

9:57:  I got all of their homework folders stuffed just in time to stop for Snack/Story time.  I then realized that I had some notes from the PTO that needed to be put in their folders.  UGH!!! :/
10:00-10:15  I was reading a fictional story about the Civil War.  It mentioned African-American Freedom Fighters.  I have learned not to assume that second graders understand every word that you read to them, so I asked them if they knew who African Americans where.  Interestingly enough, the black children didn't raise their hand, and only two white children knew the answer.  I am surprised every day!!!

Well, I think I may have bored you by now, but I just wanted you to see how teachers are MULTI-TASKERS TO THE POWER OF NINE.  We do the job while being constantly being interrupted, and we have about 10 can of worms open at one time!! Without going into the rest of the day.  I have some pictures from it, and I'm going to list a few other incidents.  (The list will not exhaust the actual list of what happened during the day.)

Ate lunch in 24 minutes, Had recess duty, Had to take children to the principal (on-going issue between children), Fire Drill, Tried to finish planning for next week, Downloaded worksheets from the Reading website (each of the 30 pages takes at least two clicks to download), Science experiment, Had to talk the boys about not lifting up the seat when they go to the bathroom 8{ , Got all of their completed papers out of their folder & stapled (NOT GRADED AS WE SPEAK!),

 3:15 Called a parent after dismissal
3:20 Changed clothes so I could run after school!   YEA!
6:00  At home, starting my second job as a blogger!! :0)

Profound (maybe) reflection:

I was always daunted by this scripture:  Matthew 17:20: "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."  I always thought, that my faith would never be strong enough to believe that I could tell the mountain to move, well, one day I realized that I do believe that God is able to move the mountain.  I have no problem believing that!!!!  This thought gives me strength and comfort every day!!!!

xoxo Friends!!!