No Longer Teach For Free!

One of my friends cleverly exclaimed this week that we are no longer Teach For Free, as she pulled our first paycheck out of her mailbox. Oh how right that sentiment was. The motivation to teach can easily be pinpointed on the children that you are teaching, but when you only have about $30 in your bank account and an empty gas tank that pay check feels pretty great.

So yesterday marked my first full week as a teacher. I came straight home and got in bed to finish my homework for my grad classes, watched a movie and went to sleep. A lame Friday night you may be thinking, but quite necessary. I am losing my voice because I am not used to talking so much and most days I spend over 12 hours at school. This is not because I absolutely must spend those 12 hours at school, but it feels like it is necessary. I also am there because I hope to inspire my students as much as they inspire me, and to do that I have a lot of work to accomplish.

Here you see the wonderful window in my classroom acting as a temporary bookshelf. I decided this week that I would like for my students to read 20 minutes every night. I presented a reading log that I borrowed from another teacher, and showed them how to fill it out. As soon as I finished what I interpreted to be a very clear explanation hands shot up in the air to ask questions. I then got this terrible feeling in my stomach and realized what it was they all wanted to know: where to get books if we don't have any at home? My heart dropped and I told them to try to read anything they could find until I got them books. I asked my principal that afternoon if I could take my students to the media center to check books out, and he told me to see him after school because he had a better idea. Well you can see the result above. Scholastic at some point last year or at the beginning of this year donated 100s of books to our school and because I asked I got to take some of them. I spent the whole evening cataloging every book that was given and creating a library log. When I went home that night I couldn't sleep because I was so excited to see my student's faces light up when they saw the books. The next day was just as rewarding. I wish I took a picture of the books before I left this weekend, because you would see that there are only about 15 left. Almost every single one of my students took out a book and was reading at every moment they got! If that is not inspirational I don't know what is.

My goal is to get ahead this weekend, so hopefully that means more blogging! Happy Labor Day weekend.