My first time in first grade.

Dear diary,

Two years ago I finished the Teacher´s school and I started to work in a public elementary school near from home. It is located in Monterrey, Mexico in an urban area. The first year I taught in fourth grade, my students were around 9 and 10 years old. The second year I taught sixth grade to kids around 11 and 12 years old. And for the first time I´m teaching first grade. I hadn´t have experience with very young kids, I must confess I was very nervous. As a teacher of high grades I used to work a lot with the order and discipline and I had always used self-analysis to convince students to do things correct, but this time I didn´t know what to expect from kids of 5 or 6 years old.

So, the first week started and everything was scary for me. Children didn´t have idea about order or discipline. They didn´t know how to take the pencil or use a notebook and they were falling from the chair all the time because they were very small and didn´t know how to sit well. Working with glue stick was a disaster, they broke it or closed with the glue out of the tube. I had to teach them all these things, also how to choose the correct sheet to write in the notebook and manage toilet paper and liquid soap. They got tired very quickly and were constantly asking about time to go home. Fortunately, just one kid cried.

At first I doubted about having studied the right profession. I didn´t know how I was going to teach these sweet scary little kids. I just took a breath and did my best. I was positively surprised when I noticed how intelligent and smart they can be. I learned to sing and dance to say hello at the beginning of the day and to say goodbye. I learned to be very patient and to speak more gently, to make simple draws in the blackbord and to clean tears, vomit and all kind of spots. Now I tie almost ten shoelaces per day, write notes for tooth mouse (tooth fairy) and call Santa Claus when somebody is not working.

 I am currently a proud first grade teacher and I feel truly a teacher. My students are learning to read, count, add and subtract. And they are doing it in a healthy learning environment. My students don´t want to miss class even if they are sick, at least is what some parents said. As far as I´m concerned I enjoy every day in my classroom with my group.

Text in the shirt: "I survived to the
first class week with first grade.
Scholar year 2018-2019"

First grade students playing in recess"

Teacher in classroom.

Students watching a video at classroom.