Is it OK for me to feel this way?

Goodness... It's hard enough for me to keep up with my kiddos, lesson planning, creating and giving unit assessments, worrying about their performance on computer-based assessments, parent conferences, and a whole list of NON-NEGOTIABLES outlined by my principals (wish I could gripe about this more)... so I apologize if blogging is last on my list!

I'm feeling worried. It's only November and I have to admit I am feeling BURNT OUT. I feel like I've got so many things to worry about (remember those "non-negotiables"?) that I'm not really good at any one of them. It's not hard to see why so many young teachers leave the profession after just a few years. It's not the kiddos or the curriculum... it's all of the extra STUFF demanded of me.

I'm sure you could tell me this is "normal" and to hang in there... so please do! I don't know what else I'd so with myself other than teach... but I'm not so sure I'm a good teacher sometimes.


Now that that's out of my system!

I am grateful that my students and I are really connecting this year. I enjoy being with them more than most of the adults at my school! I have some great activities planned next week around a Thanksgiving theme that I know they will love.

Here's what I plan to do for graphing. We've made several class graphs as a whole group... now it's time for us to create and interpret our own!

We'll start with a cut-and-paste graph of Thanksgiving foods.

Then we'll taste cranberry and apple juice and graph our class data!

Then I'll make sweet potato fries and mashed potatoes the night before so we can graph our favorites the next day!

*update* I fixed the "classed" typo... Thanks, Mrs. I for catching it!

Annnnd I'm TOTALLY making mashed potatoes in a crock pot at school Wednesday... it's so much more fun to cook WITH them! :)

My kiddos are sure to love these activities! Here's to one more week then a well-timed break from it all.