Yet another monday

Today was a Monday. It seems that Monday’s have been the hardest days so far. I think that is just takes some time to get back in the work mindset. This morning I reviewed my lesson plan and then spent the rest of the time writing a curriculum guide for kindergarten health. It was to meet the nutrition standard in that unit. I was not able to get it reviewed by Sara today but that is on the top of my list of things to do tomorrow. I am hoping that as I write guides that they will continue to get easier and easier. I also hope that with that I will be able to complete them faster and faster. I know that I still have a lot of time here but I also have a lot of work to do and want to make sure that I complete all of it. This is will be one of the biggest projects I have ever done (which I also know was the point).
I had class at 11:40am. It went ok. I put them into assign seating and I went over how the class would be run as well as grading. I think that they were expecting me to be a “push-over” teacher and today they got a glimpse that this is not going to be a joke. However, I did stress to them that it is their choice how easy the class is. Most of their grades are going to come from participation and completion. So if they will pay attention in class and take notes and not loss their worksheets they should be ok. I am hoping that at the core of what they learn from my class they learn that everything in life is a choice (which applies to health as well) and that they have control of the choices that they make. This will affect every area of their lives.
After class and lunch, I wrote out the quiz that we will be having next class and starting looking at material to teach next class after the quiz. We are going to start talking about diseases. I found myself frustrated when I started though because I do not have enough time to go into all the detail that I think is important. I am struggling with what I think is important as a health educator and what a once a week class enables me to teach. Also it is hard because I am starting with the absolute basics with them. So even though they need to know the more detailed specifics I can’t teach them without giving them a foundation. I feel deeply about it because no matter what they decide to do in life health will affect them. Therefore it is so hard when I know they are not getting the adequate education that they deserve. I understand that Doulos is still growing and developing so I am not frustrated at the school but it still makes it hard to decide what to teach and what to leave out.
And over that I know that the most beneficial thing I can accomplish for the school is this curriculum so I want to make sure that I am not letting class planning take up all of the time that I could writing curriculum. Balance is a life long pursuit.