Not ashamed...

It may be no surprise that I've had an interesting and fun-filled first 8 days of school. I never could have imagined how completely different teaching in a public school is compared to teaching in the WELS. I've had quite the 8 days of coming home and poring over the internet to find ideas to deal with my school brood.

I decided instead of trying to handle this myself, I am asking for as much help as possible. This is something I've been criticized for already. I asked the Curriculum/Instructional Specialist for help. The principal has already been in to teach a lesson to see what I'm working with. But why the criticism? My job is to teach these children the best way I know how. I've used the ways I know and the ways I'm familiar with. But my ways aren't working. My way is not completely broken, but certainly isn't working to its optimum potential. I know that I won't be happy unless I can help this class learn and learn well, and right now that's not happening. Heck, I don't even have to swallow my pride to ask for help because I'm doing what my profession applauds - asking for help and finding solutions to problems.

Thankfully my principal even had difficulty handling my class, so that made me feel a little bit better about my situation. I have the school counselor coming in tomorrow to observe a few of my students, I have one of the APs coming in as well to observe another few students, and I have the CIS coming back in to give me some pointers to deal with my little balls of energy, as well as ideas to keep things as structured as possible.

So why should I be ashamed of asking for help? I'm not at all. Anyone who thinks for a second that I should be ashamed is ridiculous. I'm bound and determined to give my students the best kindergarten experience they can have, and darn it, they're going to get it!!