I take it back!!!

Just a few months ago, as a BYU student observing the classes of other teachers, I was judging teachers in their own classroom. "If this were my classroom," I'd think to myself, "I would have much more participation." Or, " they don't have very engaging lessons. I would put in so much more effort and thought into my class time." OH MY GOSH....I REPENT OF MY JUDGING THOUGHTS! It is easy to have big dreams when your don't have the full work load on you. But now that I am the only teacher in my classroom, I see that planning, preparing, and managing time and lessons takes a lot more work than I ever had imagined before. 

So my goal for this week is to finish my unit plan map (for A Long Way From Chicago) and try to make every day fit in with the one before and after it. I need to be able to see the unit end from the beginning and work towards those goals. While these first two weeks have seemed very random, next week will have more fluidity to it. Monday is a holiday (Yay!!! No School!!...I think I will appreciate holidays more as a teacher than I ever did as a student). Tuesday we will talk about the Article of the Week (an article by the PTA on how parents can help their students succeed) and talk about elements of fiction. Wednesday and the rest of the week will be dedicated to A Long Way From Chicago. Ok, now I just need to breathe and take it one day at a time.