Week 1 - A Whole New Ball Game

My first full week back to volunteering was May 12 (happy birthday to me). In the first grade classroom I volunteer in, there were 5 new students and by new I mean that they weren't in the classroom when I left for Spain. In one of the kindergarten classes I volunteer in, there were 4 new students and in the other kindergarten class there was 1 new student. The kids were definitely excited to have me back in the classroom and so were the teachers. I could see the progress that my kindergartners had made. Some of them went from not knowing how to hold a pencil to being able to write full sentences without any help. It was really difficult getting back into the groove of things with the first grade class because of all the new students. The reason that there were so many new students was due to the fact that the teacher handled "problem students" so well that administration decided to take some of the problem students from the other first grade classes and put them with this teacher. It was really difficult getting some of these students to understand that I was also in charge despite the fact that I had not been there for 4 months. The first week was really hectic and getting accustomed to waking up at 6am was not an easy task...but I managed.