Monday, Monday

Even though I'm always somewhat dreading Mondays, they usually end up being the easiest day of the week. Everyone's well rested and more or less focused. On top of that, today three of my most difficult students were absent. I feel guilty at how happy and relieved I felt when I realized I didn't have to deal with them. They deserve to come to school everyday and learn, and I worry the same feeling of relief I felt today translates to negativity in the classroom when they are there.

Meanwhile, I'm fighting off a cold and today I lost my voice. It was actually interesting to see what happened when I could not physically raise my voice above a certain level. I'm resting up now and I'm hoping I get my voice back tomorrow, but it will be interesting if I don't. In a lot of ways I think it was more effective being forced to whisper, because the kids had to listen. They had no other choice.

I always jinx myself with these early-week prognostications, but I'll say it again: I'm feeling good and starting to feel like I've got a handle on the rhythm of lesson planning. Of course tomorrow when Lil Miss Stay Puff and Pop N Fresh are back along with my yet-to-be-introduced main problem child I may be feeling differently. In the mean time, here's another ego boost to go along with a decent day of teaching, courtesy of a NY Times article on higher test scores and GPAs among newer teachers.