¡Mi viaje a España!: Life in Third Grade...

Things started out rough for me in third grade. I am just about to complete my second full week of full-time teaching. The first two days were absolutely awful. If I didn't have such a great experience in Lapel, I probably would have started questioning my choice of professions. Things started to get better on Wendesday, and I implemented a new behavior system for an individual student who gave me a lot of trouble. By Friday, I was completely ready for the weekend. I was stressed out with the students, planning, completing job applications, and working on my Teacher Work Sample. Salamanca was the perfect remedy!

Some changes happened over the weekend for the student who had been giving me a lot of trouble. It is a hard situation, but I think he will be able to be a happy child now. Monday morning was still kind of rough, but Monday afternoon.... yay! I walked out of there after laughing and having fun with the students. That was my first time in the 7 weeks that I've been here that I left the school thinking, "Wow, that was fun! I want to do that again!" I had many, many days like that in Lapel but they had sure been lacking here. I finally got one! Ever since then things have been getting better.

The students still talk constantly and, sometimes, they are just flat out rude, but we are working on that. I implemented a new class-wide behavior system and that seems to have been working. It is still a struggle knowing what is Spanish culture, what is rich/private school culture, and what is disrespect. It is an interesting environment. The students are done testing/pushing me, though. At the beginning I think they wanted to see how much they could get away with. They quickly realized that amount was very small. At one point I heard a student mumble, "Man, she's tough." That made me happy!

The student who was quite difficult at the beginning is now quite chummy with me. He has such a great soul. The wonderful young man he has always been is now getting the opportunity to shine through. He keeps asking me, "Miss Jessie, when are you leaving? Is it this Friday or next Friday?" I told him that next Friday is my last day and he was like, "Ok, good, cause I have to get a picture of you before you go!" He has been such a source of joy in my days. His personality has been so fun to experience, but it gives me goosebumps to give him a "Miss Jessie caught me being good" card on his desk constantly throughout the day for his positive behavior. It makes me SO happy to see him setting positive examples for the other students. This guy is going to be hard to say good-bye to, that's for sure!