the first week.

Last Sunday, I was a nervous wreck. I worried about my signing skills, about whether my cooperating teacher would be scary or helpful, about whether I would be good at teaching in this type of environment. I mean, all the decisions I have made since Autumn of 2009 have lead me to this point - what if I failed?

Ok, so I'm a little dramatic. Luckily, a week later, the feeling of possible failure has been already left in the dust. In its place, I am feeling motivated, excited, and anxious to start teaching.

This week was eye opening. I went from having twenty-one Kindergarten students last semester to just eight 1st- and 2nd-graders this semester. That may sound like it's easier but it is so, so much harder. As I explained before, the developmental, literacy, cognitive, and social levels of these eight students are all over the place. There are deaf children of deaf adults who have very advanced language skills. There are students who are dyslexic and thus have that much harder of a time with literacy skills. Some students use their voices all day long, others only use them when they go to speech class. We learned yesterday that one seven-year-old didn't know his body parts - what a nose is, what eyes are, what the difference is between arms and legs. One student got a late start in language acquisition and also gets no help at all from his mom and dad and so he's still learning to spell words like "dog" and "baby." Until two days ago, he didn't know his last name. One girl has unlabeled cognitive issues and still has to look at her name in order to spell it. And then there's the girl who moved here from Bangladesh just two months ago and has no language at all at seven-years-old. She is the one who breaks my heart. She tries so hard and you can tell that she wants so badly to communicate with people because she has never been able to before. She has a long way to go but I feel that her determination will yield great results from her. Hers is a lonely world, though, and I do my best to spend time with her when I can.

Fridays are spelling test days. There are three different tests for eight students. This is the variation we are working with. Five of the students are learning about natural resources in Social Studies while the other three are trying to read books called "The City" that say, "The park. The streets. The cars. The people." There is so much to consider, so much to take into account. It is palpable how important every little lesson is, every moment you give, every interaction.

And I love it. Every little part of it.

On Monday, I start picking up some responsibilities. I will take over a Guided Reading group for the rest of the semester in which I pick out a book for two of the boys each week and work with them on it all week, incorporating word study and writing assignments and homework. They are reading B level books now and my cooperating teacher and I are hoping they'll be on C level books in two weeks or so. I'll also slowly take over responsibility for the other reading groups, delegating assignments for the teacher's assistant to help the other students with. Additionally, I'm starting my first unit (I have to write three this semester). For Black History Month, we are making an alphabet book, learning about important people in history, one person for each letter of the alphabet (i.e. for A, the students will learn about Alexander Lucius Twilight, the first African-American to graduate from college in America). My second unit will be a math unit about money.

Mind you, I'm doing all this in sign language! I've been learning ASL for so long though that signing and talking at the same time has been a bit of a challenge. (ASL is its own language and does not match English grammar so signing what I say out loud in English is a whole new experience for my brain). Practice will help though (I hope) and funnily enough, the students are helping me. I'll be in the middle of explaining something when I get corrected on one of my signs. The way that Spanish-learners like to go to Spanish-speaking countries to perfect their fluency, I think my signing will advance more in the next four months than it has in the past few years. I'll just have little six- and seven-year-olds to thank for it.

So, that was the first week. I'm quite pleased. I'm feeling good about everything. After almost a month of sleeping in every morning and having more free time than I knew what to do with, I thought waking up early five days a week again would take some adjustment, but it's been surprisingly pleasant. I have a twenty-five minute walk to the school but I give myself thirty-five minutes so I can enjoy a leisurely pace (and let's face it, nobody wants sweaty armpits first thing in the morning). With the help of a hot cup of tea in my hand and the brisk air swishing at my face, I am awake and ready to go by the time I walk into the classroom.

One week down, eleven weeks to go.