First days of school

I learned something new today! When you add an e to the end of a word, it turns the vowel before it from short to long, like cub and cube, or mill and mile, or tap and tape. I keep thinking of new ones. One of the fifth graders was having trouble pronouncing the vowels, and I realized that this was the rule. I'm sure I learned it in 2nd grade like everybody else, but reading and pronouncing words is so automatic to me now, I don't even realize that I'm following rules. So that was cool, and the kid seemed to understand, too.

I was panicking a bit earlier this week, because the principal couldn't really tell me about what I'd be doing, so I had no clue, and the unknown always forms a frightening picture in my head. But today and yesterday I've been working with the children. Which also scares me, because there are a lot of things I don't know, but at least now I know that this one needs to learn how to use capital letters, and that this person is two grades behind in reading. A lot of the kids didn't read all summer, so now they've lost some of the gains they made the year before. I was really shocked to hear the principal say that they send books home for them to read over the summer, and some parents burn them in their wood burning stoves. With an attitude like that from the parents, no wonder they're not eager to read. But they're good kids. Its a small school (about 75 students K-6), and most everybody is related to each other. The thing they fear the most is Sr. Helen calling their parents.

And they're all so tiny to me. They think I'm cool because I'm the tallest teacher here. The 2nd graders especially seem amazed at my height (5'11''). I feel like a goddess. Friday classes get out early, at 1:40, so that parents can go to the big town (90 minutes away) to go to the bank or shopping before things close.

I get so tired at the end of the day. I never realized teaching was so much work. When I was a kid, it never occurred to me that the teacher might not know something or be frustrated or tired. They just knew everything because they were the teachers.