Catching up

It's been a while, but I just wanted to catch up on what's been happening with the Stokers. First off, I started work about 3 weeks ago. It was a little rough the first week, I just missed Jonas and he really missed me, but then it's been better as the weeks go on.

Jonas really missed me when I first started working. Clint said that Jonas wouldn't take his naps very well, would be fussy all day till I came home and then he was happy as could be. But after the first week, he got a lot better and we got a routine down, and he is so good for Clint - taking his naps, eating from a bottle really well, etc. So that's good.

Next, work for me. It's been quite an adjustment getting used to teaching at a junior high level. With Elementary I had the same 25 kids everyday, taught them 5 subjects (so more planning) and I had 90 minutes to teach math. Now I teach 140ish 6th graders math for 49 minutes (so less planning but more grading). So I have to squeeze in grading their homework & self-starter, teaching a lesson, and helping struggling students all in 49 minutes. So it's been kind of hard this past week (school started for the students on Aug. 29). But I talked with the math department chair and she gave me a BRILLIANT idea. So this next week I'm going to need to start a new organization of the classroom that will help me do grading/entering scores in quicker and make more time to teach. So that will be awesome and the kids will just have to get over it.

I also think the sixth graders are having a hard time adjusting from elementary school to junior high. They can't organize any of their classes, they forget they have homework, and they lose everything! Which means more work for me. But I'm telling them this week that if they forget their homework they automatically get half off. So their either going to sink or swim. We'll see what happens. I've been nice for a week, now it's time to buckle down and let them know I mean business!

Clint also has started school this week. He has 4 classes online and one night class. So he's been busy getting that done. He's had to get in a routine with Jonas so he can do his classes but take care of him at the same time. So we've been busy. It's all good though.

It's been a crazy 3 weeks getting used to our new schedules, but I think we have it worked out now.