I Work All Night I Work All Day

to pay the bills I have to pay.....

That ABBA song definitely fits what my life has been like the last three and half weeks. On August 15th I went back on track ( back to work). With work comes planning, planning, planning, grading, parent teacher conferences, a bit of teaching, a lot of paperwork, and some more planning.

As a first year teacher planning is a large part of my daily life. For the most part I keep about two-three weeks ahead of my students. I have the whole quarter outlined and then I just go from there. This is a system my CT (the teacher that trained me last year) taught me and I liked at have kept it in my classroom.

Ever since coming back on track I feel like it is becoming harder and harder to stay on top - now don't get me wrong I am still good until the end of September, but I still feel stressed. The good news is I love my job. I love my students and I love my team (the group of teachers I work with everyday).

I hate the drive and I hate the paperwork. I also don't really enjoy dealing with parents, but I guess that part won't go away. I also don't really enjoy my Family Consumer Science class. Currently, I am trying to learn to sew so I can teach my students to sew. And by learning, I mean putting it off for as long as possible. I think I am hoping the school will miraculously get rid of the sewing portion of my class. Haha, unlikely.

Luckily, my school is on that weird track system and I get a break every few months- which I love- love- love! My next break starts October 16th and I really cannot wait.

Being a teacher really is great, but by the end of the day I am pooped! I have now realized holidays and weekends were created to give teachers a break and not the other way around!

(Just in case you need a visual of how far I drive everyday: I live in Laie and work in Mililani Town. And no I can't just cut across the island... I have to follow the red line... which takes an hour there and an hour back!!!! EVERYDAY!!!)

BUT IT'S WORTH IT CAUSE I GET TO WORK WITH THESE PEOPLE: 

Back row: Richard (Wheel), Jeff (Counselor), Jake (Science)

Front: Hiroko (Sped), Pat (Language Arts), Me (Social Studies) Krysti (Math), and Kelley (Sped) 

At my school we work as a team of teachers. Meaning we all have the same students and work and plan together. As a first year teacher this has been extremely helpful and I love love love my team! 

Tutoring and Teaching

Over the last week I have realized how much I love my job(s). While Student Teaching does not really qualify as a job, but as a contiunation of school-- I still am counting it because if waking up at 6:30 and commuting an hour to school and an hour home and teaching for 6 hours is NOT a job- I don't know what is!

Anyway, back on track. I love student teaching. I am teaching 7th grade, and it is great. When I got my asssignment, I thought this would be the worse thing ever! While I am secondary education, which includes 6-12, I NEVER wanted to be anything but a high school teacher. So it surpised me when I actually started to enjoy these 11-12 year old rug rats. Overall, things are going great. While I don't really love or really feel comfortable with my content (Hawaiian and Pacific History), I find that it is pretty interesting. I started student teaching a couple weeks ago and I find myself exicted to see MOST of my students (there are those that I wish would take a sick day- hahaha - just joking- a little)!

I still HATE getting up at 6:30 and driving two hours total- overall it's good- plus, let's be honest when do I ever wake up? I hate mornings, whether those come at 6:30 or 10:30!

Okay, so part II- tutoring. While many student teachers opt to not teach while student teaching, that is not an option for me. As much as I hate to admit it, Matt and I are not rolling in the green. (I know that is a shock to some!) Anyway, I have to work. But I am blessed to work at the Reading Writing Center here on campus. I get to tutor students that need a little extra help with any assignments with ther classes. While sometimes this gets a little tedious, it really is one of the best, if not the best, jobs on campus. And luckly, Matt and I both work here!

Two weeks ago, I had a tutee come in for help with one of his EIL classes. He is from Korea and arrived in Hawaii three weeks ago. Our tutorial went really fast, so he asked if we could just talk. Now we don't usally do this here because there is a language cente that helps with speaking, but I felt that I should just finish our tutorial. And it was GREAT! I loved just speaking and helping him figure out how to say certain things in English. So for the past two weeks he has been coming in to see me and we go over his EIL homework and then just talk. I love seeing his inprovement and helping out any way I can.

The thing that most of you don't realize is that most of our students here are second langague learners. And they are not just learning a new language, but going to SCHOOL in a new langague and a completly new culture. This is something that I think outsiders, and sometimes insiders, overlook when looking at the school. People realize that we are an international school, but I don't think they realize what really goes into something to be international. These students that come all over the world to study here work thier butts off to succeed. So everyday when I go to both of my jobs- I KNOW I am making a difference.

Somedays I get bogged down because what I do is NOT easy, but at the end of the day, it is worth it!