Things I'm Really Doing Well This School Year

I teach grade two.  It's my third year of teaching.  Here's what I feel I'm doing really well this school year.

1)  Meeting the individual needs of my students (following the explicit expectations of my job?  HUZZAH!).

2)  Being on time for work, even a little bit early.  So much less scrambling for a parking spot!  (This is HUGE, I'm never "late" for work, but last year I was always On Time rather than Organized And Early).

3)  Collaborating well with my new grade team.  I used to teach grade one, so this is a new grade team for me.  I've been contributing quite a lot for the group, and I feel good about that.  They've all taught grade two before, I didn't want them to think I was coming in there expecting them to carry me for the year!

4)  Teaching my kids respect, kindness, friendship and empathy.  I'm working INCREDIBLY HARD at teaching my students that we are a classroom family, and a school family.  We need to be kind to one another, accept each other's differences.  We've been setting "Friendship Goals", and my kids are really starting to show me that they are listening, and are becoming more respectful friends. 

5)  Positively influencing students of all ages. I didn't want to be a teacher just because I wanted to teach academic subjects -- far from it.  It was much more about connecting with kids, and teaching them how to make a difference in our world.  How to be more accepting, more loving, more understanding.  How to grow up to have an impact and be positively powerful.  This year, I especially feel like this message is coming through.  I'm also a teacher leader for our Me to We club which is a group of grade seven and eights who will be doing positive, charitable actions throughout the school year and encouraging charity throughout our school community.  (This slightly overlaps with ponit 4, but is about even the wider school community and my impact, beyond just my classroom walls).

6) Using Sign Language as a classroom team building strategy as well as out of personal interest.  I'm remembering a lot of signs, and I'm using a lot of sign language throughout our school day.  It's a skill I want to continue to remember, and the students LOVE IT, and it gives them another way to communicate, as well as a way for me to signal them when we're out and about in the school without having to use voices (such as during assemblies!) (Holy run-on sentence Batman!).  We're going to be doing a song in sign language at our upcoming Remembrance Day assembly, which I'm so excited about because it will showcase my grade twos skills and team work!

I am so pumped, you guys.  I love my job, and I've always known this is the job I've wanted to have.  This year especially, it seems like I'm just that much more organized and that much more with it.  I am just happy every. single. day.  I wake up EXCITED to go to work.  Not everyone can say that!