January

"To be conscious my son, that you are ignorant is a giant step to knowledge"--Benjamin Disraeli

Let's face it: I am a quote whore. I enjoy starting out my e mails with a main idea. Perhaps it is the plight of the 1st grade teacher to make sure that everything has a "beginning, middle, and end". I guess that I am anal about it. Anyway, in an effort to catch everyone up on the last couple of months, I am trying to post by month. January is kinda a hard month. For my job, a lot of hard decisions have to start being made; ie- retention. It's a catch-22 type of scenario really. There is really no right or wrong answer. However, my conflict-avoidance personality disorder rears its ugly head around this time of year because it's so hard to tell a parent not only the truth, but many times the brutal truth. I am convinced that I was brought to teaching to not be so passive-aggressive. While I have made strides at making this change, I constantly still second-guess myself. At least I am willing to admit that my ignorance and "greenness" as a teacher is a stepping stone to knowledge though. I realize that I will get better and better at this each year. I don't think it will make it any easier though......

Anyway, enough about my philosophizing about the future. I have made some resolutions this year for school:

1. Don't let it get personal in the classroom. I want to not take it so personally when parents are jerks. It seems the only way to survive.

2. Be more prepared. If they are busy, they behave better. I know this.

3. Volunteer more: get off my bootie.

4. Make more parent phone calls. A couple every day, maybe.

5. Be nicer. Can a 1st grade teacher ever be nice enough though? It's a lot of pressure to keep a smiling face sometimes.....hee hee