Kick Off to a Better Week

It's 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, and like the past few Sundays, I'm wide awake thinking about the week to come. This week will be better than the end of last...

1. I have had a few days to recover and refocus. Tomorrow is a fresh start as we move forward with our learning.
2. This blog has helped me to start making ties with other teacher bloggers, some of whom have already given me advice and encouragement through their own postings or comments left on mine. Their words have given me support, because I am not the only one going through this, and I will succeed. There are many, many people who have suggestions and encouragement to offer and experience beyond my own.
3. Ms. Brave offered up words of hope that the classroom environment will get better and being strict right now does not denote meanness. She helped me re-evaluate the difference between "strict" and "mean," and I'm refocusing my thinking and beginning to understand what I need to be as a teacher in the city. (It was expected that I'd be thrown off a bit and needing to learn a few things as I started fresh... especially since my past experiences have been far from city settings, and far from NYC.)
4. I feel like my life is getting into a routine and becoming a bit more like life... and for one of the first times since I moved here, I Truly feel like I have a life here in NYC and that this is my home. It might have been the fact that this weekend was the first weekend my husband went on a trip and I did not join or have any desire to - I had my own stuff to take care of. Or even more, it was the fact that I had my own errands to run... ones that did not have to deal with the apartment or my husband... My very own errands. :)... of course they all revolved around school, but I enjoyed them just the same!
5. O - and Ms. B and I spent extra time preparing for next week... It's nice to have a better clue of what we are doing in our classroom. Soon enough, we'll have our plans laid out for the weeks ahead, our teaching will improve, and flying by the seat of our pants won't be requirement to survive the day.