I wanted to post about several things. First, we have been having really mild summer here in Idaho, It has only been uncomfortably hot for maybe a week total, and the rest of the time has been raining or on the cool side. Today it is actually cold outside, cold enough for a coat! I kind of like it though, not having miserably hot weather.

I really am enjoying my job as a pre school teacher. The hardest part of working is being away from Ethan. It's nice that Ryan is able to watch him, but he has yet to suceed at getting him to take a nap. Therefore Ethan is pretty exhausted by the time I get home from work. It's also hard to get everything else done around the house when I'm gone for a good part of the day. I will figure out how to organize my time better eventually.

I go to work at 12 in the afternoon and work until 6. I've been assigned to the oldest class, which consists mainly of 5-6 year olds. I didn't expect to have my own class so quickly, and it has been a little stressful learning how to deal with 18 or more children, learning their names and corresponding guardians, etc. I really like working there though, and now that I know what age group I will be with (for the most part, except when I'm needed elsewhere) I can start organizing lessons, games and activities for the children. I've found that I work best with the children when I don't have another teacher checking in every couple of seconds or co-teaching with me. I work best when I can discipline and decide activities all on my own, and the children listen to me more when It's just me. When another teacher comes in I find it hard to discipline because as soon as I say anything the other teachers (who feel I'm too quiet) will repeat(yell) whatever I say, and the children end up ignoring me all together and the other teacher ends up being who they listen to. I've decided that I hate yelling all day to get the kids attention, it causes more chaos, and my throat is sore by the end of the day. So, I think I'm going to use a whistle or something of that sort, which seems better than yelling all day at the kids. I wish the class sizes were a lot smaller, it's a lot easier to work with the children when there are only 12 or so of them. When the classes swell to 23 or more it can be quite difficult to keep the chaos down.