i've forgotten how adorable kids are. i think one of the hardest things i will have to overcome when i become a teacher is to resist the constant urge of hugging each and every one of my little devils.

today, we were writing sentences on what we like about school and what we do in school, using the sentence frame: "In my school, I...," replacing the pronoun "I" with "we," "our," "there," etc. At the end of the lesson, mrs. c-h read some of them out loud.

"In my school, I like school because it is school."

"I like school because it is fun. I like school when it is fun. I like school a lot because it is fun."

"In my school, I have a pen."

"In my school, I like the walls and papers."

i couldn't control my laughter - another thing i will have to learn to resist.

first day!

today was my first day back in the classroom after a very long time. 

i was so excited, i drank 2 cups of coffee.

well, also because partially i had to wake up at 7am.

i am placed at a beautiful K-5 elementary school, test scores are a little higher compared to the rest of the district, its a new school only 7 years old, and walking around the school with the principal, i can tell the school most definitely prides on its motto of being safe, respectful, and responsible. it's pasted everywhere.

i will be working with mrs. c-h in her first grade classroom, it's specifically an ELL (english language learner) classroom, where all 25 kids are SLAs (second lang learners), with only 2 EOs (english only). this isn't surprising.

the kids are further classified into ELD1, 2, and 3 in first grade, depending on their english proficiency level.

they are so little and small and filled with dimples, i can't stop smiling. they're all so eager to learn and it's so nice being able to work with fresh brains and new minds. 

my GT (guiding teacher) is just awesome. i am thrilled and so grateful i am placed with her. she has been teaching for 13 years, but it's her first year at this school. she is so dedicated to her kids and i can honestly tell she is amazing at teaching from just being in her classroom for 5 minutes. 

they say you can tell how good a teacher is by observing their classroom for 1-2 mins.

scary.

i selected a case study participant today, a little boy Alejandro. i will be studying his english proficiency, his levels of growth as well as learn more about him. he's so bright, yet shy.

i go back wednesday morning and i cannot wait.

i think my passion for teaching has been renewed and awakened and i am excited to be back in a classroom.