Teaching Smeaching

God, you would think that I have bitten by the blogging bug or something!  I just decided that this was probably a good outlet for some of my feelings.  I will consider this therapy!  In our economic state, I can't afford the co-pay for a therapist and a house payment, so you will all have to suffer! Okay, just Erica will have to suffer because she is the only person who seems to read this, and you may choose to rethink that soon!  I have a feeling if I really let this take off, I might just start saying things that have never left my mouth before!

I am sitting here getting ready to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and am really not all that into it.  I have my wonderful dog Charlie, snuggled in right next to me on my comfy bed and as the previous post says, I am thankful, but I can't help the thoughts that keep creeping into my head about going back to work on Monday!  I never knew that I would feel that way about something that I have loved my entire life!  

I love teaching!  It is something that I have always known that I would be, even when I had my short lived stint into nursing (okay, so no actually schooling took place, but I got into three different nursing schools), teaching was still in the back of my mind.  I have always surrounded myself with education in one form or another.  I mentored students when I was in middle and high school, I taught CCD classes off and on for years, I volunteered at different schools, I have been a substitute teacher, and now finally I am a teacher in my third year of "official" teaching.

I teach fifth grade in Title I school, which means that I most of the population at my school (at least 93%) is on free and reduced lunches.  I have a very diverse ethnic population in my room and at my school.  I believe we have more than 20 languages spoken in our school at this moment and that is a very cautious estimate!  In my room, I know that I have had more than nine languages represented at one time!  Talk about challenges, especially in light of No Child Left Behind.  Sometimes I feel like I am leaving every child behind with all the expectations and crap that are placed upon teachers shoulders!  This year is worse because our school failed to make its annual yearly progress, so we have been placed on alert and will need to pass our CRT tests this year in order to make AYP.

This sounds like a bunch of weird words and acronyms, and to be honest, they are!  I have often wondered why in education people have an acronym for everything and for the most part, they are just a letter off of each other.  For example, I sit on the SIC, which is the School Improvement Committee, not to be confused with the SSC (Student Services Committee), or the SCC (the School Community Council).  These are just a few!  Trust me, when I say that the list goes on and on, and in typing this, I screwed it up and had to correct it!  So...

So, I think that I have found my angle for a lot of my blog.  I will keep you posted on the goings on of a fifth grade teacher.  I know that I said that I would fill you in on my year thus far, but I feel that I am ranting a little right now, so I should probably just go and start getting ready to spend the day with my family and some friends.  I can't wait to start drinking my homemade peach sangria!  It will help with the work anxiety, or at least make me forget about it for the mean time!!!!