7 weeks to go

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So I apparently I only mentioned spring break in passing. It was a quiet, restful break. I did some school work and I relaxed a whole lot. It was great. Last week we returned to school and I was a hot mess. Even though I had planned things out for the rest of the year, I was all over the place in some classes. Doing one thing here, another thing there, it was nuts. Plus my patience was extremely short. So yeah, it was not a good first week. This week was much better though still not as good as I had hoped. The good news is there are only 7 more weeks left in school. Next week is testing, and with 45-minute classes basically, nothing will get done. Then the final week is finals. That boils down to only 5 more weeks of instruction. 10 days each class. Woo Hoo!!!! I just need to survive. I have one class that is literally the bane of my existence. It has a bunch of personalities that, when brought together, are annoying and impossible to deal with. I lose it in that class regularly. I need to find a way to deal with this class for the remaining weeks so I don't kill them or me. I'm seriously thinking of letting them chose their own seats for the remainder of the year. I was planning on telling them that I would be teaching mainly to one side of the room and if they weren't that interested they could sit on the other side. That doesn't mean that I won't teach them, I'm just not going to focus on them so if they want to goof off, that will be up to them. They will still be responsible for the work and they will still have to take tests, but if they chose to goof off they are free to go right ahead. That class has some of my highest achievers and then some of the lowest. I just want to give up on the lowest and focus on the high ones. Is that bad? Am I a horrible teacher because of that? I just want to cover what I have to cover and not have to deal with them. Is that bad? Ugh.....being a teacher is hard. So yes, the end of the year is rapidly approaching and I could not be happier. This year has been hard, really hard, on me. I think what happens, at least for me, is the first year I'm just adjusting to everything so I don't have time to focus on the little things. I'm trying to get the big things right and not screw things up too much. The 2nd year is really the adjustment phase for me. Now I'm comfortable in the school and I can focus on the kids. As usual, I didn't really have a solid handle on my curriculum so I struggled with that. The struggle with that results in classroom management problems and this kind of thing in the classroom. Next year, I will be more comfortable with both the school and the kids and I can focus on the curriculum. I have a pretty solid curriculum now for all my classes, next year I want to refine it so that I just have to make tweaks here and there as I go. So I'm holding out for the end of the year. This summer I plan on doing things that I enjoy. Hanging with friends at the pool. Training my new dog. Reading, watching TV, and generally just enjoying life. I will work on school work too, but I rather enjoy that. So 7 weeks and counting.....

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