The Story of Cat's Life: Lead up a mountain by an 11 year old

Well, ladies and gentlemen; I survived my first week of teaching!! YAY ME!!! The week had its ups and its downs; but all in all it was a great week!

Monday was the first day of school and it was a little crazy because I wasn't sure what to expect of the kids or the schedule, that I put together by the way. I think teachers need to stop complaining about large class sizes because a small class isn't all its cracked up to be. I tried to have group discussions and the kids wouldn't talk! Ahh, it was a slight nightmare and to make things worst my expectations were set too high for these guys. Also I feel I didn't spend enough time on my lessons and thinking about what the day was going to bring. Thank goodness we were done by 2 O'clock because the day was just not going that well. But after I complained a bit and thought about the day, it was a great learning experience because then I knew more about the kids: some of their skills, some of their interests, and how they act in school. I have five first graders and one kindergartner that leaves at 1:30. They are great kids and they are very cute and I already have two of them that are going to be a challenge and test my abilities as a teacher.

After Monday I went back to the drawing board and rewrote my schedule and my lesson plans. When Tuesday came I was going along and it was going a lot better than the day before! I would have to say that Tuesday went better than Monday. I had a blast with the kids and was loving the fact that I'm a teacher and I have my own classroom, well a part of a gym. As far as the rest of the week went it was pretty good, but had its ups and downs, like I said earlier. Can't wait for next week when I get to start teaching reading. (The first week was community building and feelings curriculum; the boring stuff).

So now today's Friday and I lived through my first week of teaching and I also survived a couple of hikes on the island. Earlier in the week, on a really nice day, I was cleaning out the frig and Jori was working late. I heard a knock at the door and a voice yell "Miss G!" It was Samantha, one of Jori's students. She was looking for people to go for a "walk". I put "" around walk because on this island you don't go for a walk you go for a hike, since there's really no place to walk on the island. So I decided why not, so I went with Samantha and soon was joined by one of her friends. Those girls were so nice and patient with me. We took the south trail and Samantha couldn't get over that I couldn't see the road/trail. Well, it just looked like a bunch of rocks and grass, but apparently there was a trail in there. We were going along and some of it was VERY steep! I mean it was a drop off! We've had so much rain that there was a mud slide on the south side, well when we came to that part I thought I'll try it. Yeah, got less than a fourth of the way and said I can't do it, because the thought in my head was I have to come back and do this again. I was proud of me for doing it because I went a different direction on the island and went a little farther up than before.

Then tonight Jori and I are watching Oliver, she's crazy for musicals. And we hear a knock at the door then the door opening, the kids wanted us to go with them up to the Shoe. The Shoe is a rock that's the half way point to the top, in my opinion it doesn't look like a shoe, it looks more like Pac Man. So we decided yeah let's go!

We were going along then I started to look around which is so cool, but at the same time a bad idea for me because I was starting to freak out a little. But Mackenzie, an 11 year old sweetheart, told me to take her hand and told me "no worry. If worry bad happens". She is so wise beyond her years and that really helped me as we were going up the mountain; especially when we got to a spot where we had to climb basically strait up in long grass. Good thing that long grass can be used like rope! Oh and did I mention that this part what not part of the trail, yeah it was a little scary. But it was ok because we were almost to the Shoe. Finally we made it to the Shoe and it was so cool! The view was just gorgeous, there are no words. But the way back down was just scary for me. I almost tumbled down the mountain like fives times and Jori just about took a big time spill, but thank God she regained her balance because that could have gone a different way. When we made it back to our house I felt a lot better, one because we were on flat ground, and two I was very proud that I did it! Tomorrow I think we're going to go to the top, but with an adult, not just children. I think that was the most scary part, watching these kids hop on rocks so high up a mountain that is very steep! YIKES! Well, time for bed because I'm SO tired from this week and the excitement of climbing up the mountain in my backyard.