Hey Everyone! Thanks for all the well wishes! So it's been 2 days teaching 4th grade and its been a real eye opener. The staff, parents and children have all been very welcoming. I can honestly say that the friendliness of all the people I run into is my favorite part of STX, so far. The other three 4th grade teachers have taken me under their wings and have been extremely helpful. And 2 teachers, one in second and the other in fifth must have seen the look of confusion and slight panic in my and my children's eyes yesterday morning as I was trying to figure out where to place them while I was supposed to be meeting my students at the same time. So these 2 teachers "adopted" my girls until the guidance counsellor could place them. Hopefully Ashlyn & Kyla will be able to stay with them for the year. The only complaint one of my children had was that their teacher scared her today when her teacher removed her belt in class and threatened some of the children when they were misbehaving. I just told my daughter that she will never have to worry about any kind of corporal punishment as long as she behaves.
The lack of funding for the schools here is a real issue. However, I knew this coming in but it was still a bit of a awakening. With that said, so many teachers are offering posters to help get me started and are sharing text books since there was a miscommunication about how many sets of curriculums there were on campus for my grade level. Turns out there were only enough for 3 fourth grades, and I and my students make up class number 4! But hopefully it will be resolved by Friday so I can plan accordingly over the weekend.
There has been some amazing things happening at my school too! A wonderful custodian spent the day in my class yesterday cleaning it from top to bottom! What a difference since I was only able to get into my classroom for the first time on Monday and it had been used for 5th grade storage for the entire summer. And today a parent stopped me before school started and told me that her daughter came home from school yesterday upset because the school day schedule. The mom said her daughter was also upset because none of her friends from last year were in my class. So she wad considering transferring her to a school she worked at. BUT, she said she asked her daughter to name one good thing about her day and her daughter said me, her teacher. And her daughter asked her mom to try one more day first before thinking of transferring. So the mom wanted to tell me in person that if she does transfer her daughter it wasn't because of me. And last but not least a wonderful thing happened yo me this afternoon st the end of school. One of the SPED resource teachers came by my room and noticed the lack of pretty much almost everything and she gave me a kidney shaped table!!
I am so blessed and thankful for the wonderful people at Markoe Elementary. I am truly where I am meant to be! And once things start running a little smoother I look forward to really getting out and enjoy this amazing island and will hopefully run into many of you!
