First week of school!

Last week we had 3 half days which were pretty laid back and went by quickly. But I must say, the actual first day of school was terrible. I usually consider myself I pretty strong person and capable of handling most situations, but I was miserable on Monday. I felt completely out of control with 18 little people under me for almost 8 hours.
One of my biggest challenges is the fact that I do not speak Spanish. Because the majority of my students do not think in English, their minds easily wander. And being six years old, their minds can only stay focused for a few minutes anyway. Once these little guys get distracted, they talk (of course) or just get up and start walking around. I would love a class of 10 students, where I could give a lot more individual attention to each.
Each day has been progressively better - I really do think this year is going to be great! I can't describe how satisfying it is to already see progress in students (even just to learn how to write a 2 or learn to capitalize in sentences).
I'm also very impressed with the level of intelligence in many of the first graders - Draven said to me this morning as he was finishing writing 'The cat ran.' - "Ms. Jessica, can I write and exclamation point at the end instead of a period? Because what if the boy was really excited that his cat was running?" I was just wondering- what boy....? and How does he even know what an exclamation point is? The day before we learned about the period.

do I look like a teacher?












my classroom -decorated

























First graders!