How Bad Do You Want It?

It has been a Tim McGraw kind of day. This was the last song I listened to before getting off the bus tonight and it is perfect for my day. 

I get to make my living

Doing what I love

Today I decided that my teaching was not good enough for my students and that with only 7 days left, I need to live and breathe making changes for my first graders.


Every night I give my heart and soulSometimes that ain't enough...  


This is hard becuase the reality is I cannot handle my students on my own. Yes, I can control them, but it takes a lot quality teaching time and a lot of energy and stress that detracts from my lesson. Not to mention the fact that my five students with chronic behavior problems (for those non-teacher out there...students who continue to misbehave and do not respond to warnings and consequences...you know the type of student I am talking about. We found out today that our 5 students were separated over 3 different rooms last year, but we are lucky enough to have them all together. To put it in a nice way our FAs explained that the four of us would be more than prepared for the 'classroom from hell' next year after this summer...) continually are removed from the carpet and other classroom learning.

Can you feel it?
Can you taste it?
Can you hear it ohhh knocking at your door?

This is not okay, this is not helping us reach our goals. My collab partner for this week and I were both very unsatisfied with this and decided that it was time to make some changes happen.

How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?

We have a really good chemistry together and decided that tomorrow we would team teach. This is not something typically acceptable because it can hinder our own development, but the two of us were adamant that this is what is best for our kids. We called an "emergency" meeting with our CMA and presented our plans. With some critical feedback we are on track to team teach for tomorrow.

We also are on track to completely change our math calendar for the last week to focus on quality over quantity of objectives. Our review starts tomorrow and we are moving away from an assessment/ objectives based lesson for the day and giving our students a strategy to build number sense. We are teaching number lines!

It gets EVEN better...not only are we team teaching, reviewing a requisite skill, but I am taking my kids outside and teaching a 100% kinesthetic and verbal lesson. I don't have to teach on the carpet tomorrow!

Tomorrow is a make it or break it day.

Are you eatin', sleepin', dreamin'
With that one thing on your mind?

It could be awesome or it could fail miserably. Regardless, this is the best I have felt going into a day all institute. This feels like me. This is my style of teaching. Yes, my LP could be more thought out, but the plan is in my head and I have a whole bus ride to get the details together. I have my past experience and my new TFA skills and I am hopeful that this is the balance that I am looking for.

As much as this lesson is for my students, it is a lesson for me. It is a lesson to bring some of my personality back into teaching.


How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Cause if you want it all/ You've got to lay it all out on the line.