almost there...for this week ;)

phew.
it's thursday.
afternoon.
my kiddos have been gone for a few hours.
and i'm 'done' for the week.
sure, i have to teach tomorrow.
but all of the other stuff - not related to educating 7 year olds - is done.
miraculously, i found 80 hours worth of evidence. so $500 is coming my way someday. :)
i finished my btsa (beginning teacher program in ca) action plan...only to find out last night that it is due in late-may. part of me fumed because i was stressing and working late to finish it. but, on the upside, at least i'm done. one less thing to worry about.
since this is only my first year, i did not anticipate how busy the spring would be. i kept thinking, "i have (6,5,4,3, etc) months left to squeeze in (social studies, science, review, p.e., etc) - i'll do it later." and here it is, mid-april, with only two months left, and my science and social studies curriculum have collected a good layer of dust. and p.e. - does recess count? oh yeah...and some of them still aren't the greatest readers, writers or mathematicians.
i'm working to realize that i cannot realistically expect every student that passes through my door to be proficient in absolutely everything. i can hope, but each kiddo is unique and at works at their own level/pace - all i can do is support them along the way. the perfectionist in me is raging...but i'm gently telling her to shut up. all i can do is keep trying and hope that they can master the basics and be successful second graders. time will tell...and i just hope it's not blatantly obvious which future second graders were in my class. :/
keep my kiddos in your thoughts/prayers these next two weeks. we have a two big tests coming up - one writing and one everything-language-arts - and they are already feeling the stress. i'm trying to be as stress-free - but they must be feeding off of it because some of these little kiddos have serious test anxiety. how sad that 7-year-olds have test anxiety - but sadly, it'll be there reality until graduation. (my thoughts on standardized testing and the weight/importance it's given in terms of a teacher's competence/ability is a topic for another blog.)

~~~~~~~~~

besides school - life is lovely.
the husband is sweet, supportive and reminds me to tell the perfectionist to shut up. :) our life is simple (dinner, netflix, snuggles, walks) - but it's going really great. we're nearing our one-year anniversary, which is crazy to think about because it's been a quick year. we're trying to figure out what to do. being that we are both so frugal (and every penny goes into the 'future house' account), we're having trouble justifying what to do. any suggestions of fun, but inexpensive ways, to mark this milestone? let me know. :)

hope you all have lovely fridays and weekends.