We are headed into Thanksgiving week. This year with the way our schedule was changed we only have Thursday and Friday off. I Will gladly take any time off that we can get at this point. This school year has felt longer than just the 3 months we've been here. Things will be different this year going into the holiday. Usually, we spend the day before break creating cards for a local nursing home, but there's so much information that I need to get to the kids that I don't think it will happen. Seeing them only one day a week really makes it hard to get all the information they need. We have had to pair down what we are teaching and only hit the key standards. This makes it extremely difficult to slow down and really teach the materials we want to teach. Some days I struggle, I feel like they are just barely touching the surface of topics we usually dig down deep to teach.
This unit has definitely gone smoother than the memoir unit. I realized that starting the year (especially a year in a pandemic) with a memoir unit is harder than you'd think. You are trying to get to know the kids, they are trying to get to know you and trying to figure out what they want to share with you. At the beginning of the year, you build those relationships but it takes time. Last year we started with the suspense unit that we are currently in and I think this would have been the better way to start this year as well. But, that's in the past and we can't change any of that. All we can do is move forward with what we have and try to get as much information as we can while also testing the students left and right (definitely not my decision).
My interns last day was on Friday. So this week will be strange to be on my own for part of the time ( I have one class alone without my co-teacher). I didn't realize how much of the small stuff she would do, so I am trying to get back into a routine of what all I have to do. Having a three day week will help make the adjustment go smoother. It was great having her, but I am happy to have my "me" time in the mornings back. It was hard some days to just sit and get stuff done when someone else is in the room and you want to make sure they know what to do or explain what it is that you are doing.
Last week, my co-teacher and I created a youtube channel. We kept joking with our students that we were going to create one. One of our classes (5th block) was totally against us doing it and said that it wouldn't go well, we'd get zero likes or subscriptions. Bri and I took this as a challenge accepted moment and decided to go forth with a channel.. Our other classes, who supported us, helped us come up with a name and some ideas of what we should put on it. During parent-teacher conferences when we didn't have parents to call or meet with, we went ahead and did an introduction video. We then edited it and showed it to our students on Friday. As of this morning, we have 32 subscribers and 114 views. I'd say that's a pretty good start to our channel. Stay tuned for future videos.
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