Oh wow so much to say! While I was hoping to keep up with this Blog I have found that I am busier than I have ever been in my entire life!! But let's see if I can hit the high points and catch up. First I started off with 16 beautiful little children and gained 3 more in October. Of the 19 children there are 11 boys and 8 girls. My class is a very diverse group of Pandas as there are 11 Hispanic children, 4 African American children, 1 multiracial,1 Asian, 1 Caucasian, and 1 Arab child. I have adapted to the routine and curriculum very well and have been able to interject my knowledge of kindergarten expectations in to the curriculum as well. I also take the knowledge I have gained from all the wonderful teachers I have worked with in the past and use it each and every day. I have a wonderful Pre-K team that I work with. While I have a great Mentor in Mrs. Savage I actually feel I have a whole team of mentors as I can ask anyone of them for help or advice and they gladly give it.
I have been fortunate to have 3 Donors Choose Grants completely funded for close to $1000.00 worth of materials added to my classroom. Including a complete library of books in Spanish for my Hispanic families to read to their children at night, a puppet theater with puppets, and I now have a library of Dr. Jean CD's among other items. I have another Donors Choose Project up now which is partially funded at this time. I also go to Classroom Central each month in hopes of giving as much to my children as I possibly can.

My Parent teacher conferences went very well! I absolutely loved them. I have decided that I love my parents almost as much as I love my students!! They are very involved coming to eat lunch with their child, sending supplies whenever I ask, they come to parties, events and take time to ask how I am doing. I have learned a lot from my parents about their culture and the desires they have for their child. One parent has even sent me a disk with pictures of her child reading at home. I can tell you that was just one of the highlights of the relationships I have with the parents of my students. And the Piñata Party we had was so much fun and wonderful success.

I have found a inner strength that I never knew I had. I have coped with a child who had a colostomy bag which included cleaning and/or changing it daily then surgery to correct the defect. I have referred my first child to the intervention team and will have an IEP meeting for him next week. In this I felt very confident in my abilities as a teacher because I saw that this child had developmental issues with this child soon after he began. Now I hope to get him the help he needs soon.

I have said this so many times it is crazy but I love my job so very much. I love to walk into my classroom. I look forward to seeing my students walk down the hall and smile when they see me standing there waiting on them. I love to see the "light" go on in their eyes when they understand something. The questions they ask and the things they say make me laugh every day. I love to find new ways to teach the same thing. I love to assess them because I see growth. I pray for them and their families everyday and I know some of them pray for me because they tell me they do. I love each and every one of them and I know they love me..How??? Because they tell me.