My First Week as Mrs. Ledyard

Mrs. Ledyard is my "newly" (two years ago) married name, but I've never heard it called so many times until this past week, when I began my first year as a classroom teacher. I am responsible for making sure 82 fourth graders learn how to put their thoughts into complete, grammatically correct sentences, then into paragraphs and stories and essays and letters. Oh, and we will write poems, make art, have fun.

Though right now I'm a little too freaked out to think about the "fun" part, I must have some fun with this. It's a lot of work. A lot of planning. A lot of stuff that I'm pretty sure I don't know how to do. My feet hurt. Yet I must spring off this high dive with a sure foot, and with hope. Huge amounts of hope.

Cheesy metaphor aside, I'm pushing my students to do just that: take the leap even if you don't know how. Never written anything longer than three sentences? Don't know what a topic is? Or an essay? Can't think of anything to write? Terrible speller? Feeling a little unnerved? Looking around to see what the others are doing while your page sits blank? Welcome to my classroom.

Welcome.