A little change does a lot of good

I returned to work on Monday after my escape to Thailand ended feeling truly revitalized and renewed. I feel a lot more relaxed and the feelings of exhaustion and of being burned out have vanished. A vacation was exactly what I needed to turn my outlook on my work around. I have decided not to get angry at the kids when they misbehave, but to just accept that that is what most people in the adolescent and pre-adolescent stage do and to deal with it accordingly. When one of my elementary students gets out of hand, as was the case today with Franz in my 001 class, I will give one warning before sending the child out. Being a teacher is stressful enough as it is--I see no reason why I should scream and yell and wear out my vocal cords to get them to be quiet. I will teach the lesson to the best of my ability-- whether or not the students learn it is their choice. I have finally relaxed, and loosened my reins on the kindergarten kids. With four and five-year olds, you can't expect them to sit still with their hands folded like they're listening to some university lecture. The thing is, I can be a little bit uptight sometimes. i like structure. I like to see results, and I have been struggling for the past nine months at this school because there is no structured curriculum. You need a curriculum with all grade levels but especially with the wee ones because their attention spans are so short. I think I have been teaching the kindergarten kids admirably considering the circumstances I'm under. I teach these kids every single day with very few resources provided and I do find new songs to sing with them and different handouts for them to color but I can't do it all on my own. I have read practically every single story book we have to them and I can tell the kids are starting to get bored, but what am I supposed to do? i am not going to buy new children's books with my own money. That would be part of building a curriculum which is the school administration's responsibility, not mine. So I have resigned myself to using what I have and not getting a headache over it. I'm over it. Finally.