I am sitting on my back porch, enjoying the sounds and smells of an evening rain and the fact that I can blog via wireless out here. I figure that it's about time for an update.

Seven weeks into school and I have had seven new children in my class. I'm up to a population of 24. Rumor has it that my class is the largest in the building. Great. :)

I'm learning that to get the respect of these kids, I have to be hard on them. I hate being hard on them. I just want to love on them and teach them good things. The biggest lesson in my classroom for the past two weeks is...respect your teacher and respect the people around you. Ughh...once we get past this stage I hope they will be able to handle some academic work. To those of you who are in the teaching world..you're probably guessing that I'm a bit behind schedule.

I see a few of them really trying though. The toughest kids are some of the smartest...big surprise. And the ones working the hardest are the ones that I least expected to be doing so. I see so much potential, but I admit to being overwhelmed at where to start.

In other news, my 26th year is at the door. I didn't feel old until I read one of my student's papers in class today. Her mother is 26. I heard myself saying, "Oh, your mom and I are the same age!" Is it me, or does that sound a bit odd?