Weekly Reflection 8/10/07

This has been a super busy week! I have rearranged classrooms, hooked up computers, laminated, cut-and-pasted, done bulletin boards, door decorated, talked, laughed, and even had a few serious conversations about Wichita education system vs. all 13 Elementary and Middle Schools I've been in. (When I say I moved a lot, I mean a A LOT. And I wasn't a military brat. I'm just someone who's been exactly where these kids have been.)
But I'm also a bit heartbroken as well! We have a great school, filled with wonderful teachers who I can't wait to work with. But we also have a very small budget. I met our art teacher. She will visit the school once a week. She rotates through 3 different schools. The gym doubles as a cafe, and the students get 45 minutes of gym twice a week (and we wonder why kids are obese?), and music class twice a week as well. Clearly Fine Arts are not at the top of the county's list.

:Pulls out Soapbox:

And before you pooh pooh my opinion consider this. Not every child has been blessed with the skills to pick up a book and escape into a magical world. (Reading was my escape.) My sister needed an outlet as well, and art was hers. She was always a few years behind in her reading levels but that girl is crazy good at fashion because she can see in her minds eye how patterns and designs works. She sees that because an art teacher taught her how to draw in a program that taught children coping skills for stress and anger.
She's amazing at handling stress and anger and all because of that one art teacher who took some time to help kids learn how to cope and work through those feelings. See my point now?


:Puts Away Soapbox:

All in all I'm excited to figure out which grade I'm working with, and I can't wait to meet the kids! Hope ya'll have a fabulous first day and first week of school!

Love, Peace and Hooray for the first day of school!

Weekly Reflection 8/3/07

Hey Ya'll! This week has been 3/4ths awesome and a quarter corporate gibbely-gobbly (Of course this is to be expected! Orientation!). How are you feeling? Are you excited yet? It has been a pleasure getting to know some of ya'll. I hope that by the end of the year that I know each and every person in our program.
Mary Beth

Exactly How I Feel Today...

First Weekly Reflection 3/Aug/2007

Its the end of my first week. Just wanted to make sure this worked. I will post more tonight...