Some days just seem to be more stressful than others. Today was one of those days. I can’t say for sure why it was more stressful than other days just that it was. My morning groups ran great. My first grade math students are progressing well. They have been introduced to new concepts in the last few days and are catching on quickly. My first grade reading group is also doing great. The students are making very few errors when reading the stories from the lessons and they are getting better and better at their sight words. I am not having any real behavior problems. One student, who is impacted by Autism, is having problems with his eyes. He is continually complaining because he feels like there is something in his eyes. I think maybe he has allergies and the itching makes it feel like there is something in his eyes, but it is really hard for him to function with this going on. So far all I can come up is to give him a wet towel. That helps with the itching, but it gets in the way of him completing his work. My most challenging student, behavior wise, has been working really well since I started playing the student teacher game with him and he wasn’t even there today. The weird thing is that I was not the only teacher who felt this way. When all the students were out of the room, one of the other teachers said, “Wow that was a hard day.”

Ok. It was a hard day. That happens, but as the grown up it is my job to stay even. The students need to depend on me to treat them with kindness and respect no matter how I am feeling. I can’t be short with them. They need to feel safe with me always. Some things I can do to help keep my stress from showing; Have a plan but stay flexible. Today when I got to my afternoon reading group and they were not doing what they were supposed to I needed to relax and move us toward the plan. If we didn’t get all the way through what I had planned, no harm would have been done. It is a short amount of time and although my mentor teacher wants us to keep it academic sometimes that just isn’t possible. I do however need to find a fun way to work on rhyming with this group. I want it to be fun and it needs to be quick because we only have fifteen minutes