Last Day of Prep

Keeping up with this blog the way I want to is proving itself to be a little more than I can do right now. So I will ask my readers (the two of you) to be patient with me. Pictures will hopefully be posted this weekend. Posts will be a bit sporadic. Bear with me.

It's been a crazy week! We got a new 4th grade teacher, she really had to hustle to get her room ready! So Thursday our projected numbers dropped down for class size. I felt good knowing I would have 18 students and actually had a place for each of them to sit. We worked hard and got our Parent Handbook finished and copied, our rooms fixed up a bit more, and received our curriculum for the year.

This morning I went to the convocation where all the hundreds of teachers in our district gathered. It was really awesome. It was like a big pep rally. We had two marching bands, a drum line, and all the cheerleaders of the district there. Everyone was proud of their schools and excited to clap and cheer for their school. Ron Clark spoke to us and was nothing short of inspiring. He had us laughing, crying and hanging on his every word. A 4th grade teacher took a picture of him for me. I think I'll print it and put it in my classroom for inspiration.

This afternoon I ran around like crazy trying to get ready for our Parent Orientation. We still didn't know which kids we would have in our classes. The poor ladies in the office were going to have to work late tonight and stay until they could post the lists on the front doors of the school for the parents. All I know so far is that it looks like we probably have around 20 kids each which means once again I do not have enough desks for my kids. I get to figure that one out on Monday morning. The air was not working in my room and it was HOT. I started feeling panicky about how much needed to be done. I got my room cleaned up and then parents started arriving. A few walked down our hall early and I heard kids peek into my veteran team member's classroom and remark that that is where they hoped they would be. I felt frustrated because if I were a kid, that's where I would want to be too. I felt stressed with my much more spartan room.

All the parents met if the cafetorium where the principal spoke to them. It didn't go well. The room was hot, especially with a large crowd. The PA didn't work so she had to use a bullhorn and since she has been losing her voice, the parents couldn't hear. Added to this was the fact that they couldn't be told who their child's teacher would be. I looked at a crowd of irritated parents. They were ours next. We split the 4th grade team into two rooms and gave our short but sweet presentations. I talked to some parents individually and introduced myself to some of the students. Talking with them put me at ease. The parents looked less irritated and some of them even said that they hoped I was going to be their child's teacher. I assured them that no matter who they got, they could know their child was with one of the best. Still, it took the sting out of the room comments from earlier.

The challenge of next week is huge. We have over twice the amount of kids in the school than they had last year. Only 75 of those kids are returning students. I've got a warm room, a couple too few desks, and while I know what I'm doing the first day, we have to create our lesson plans for the rest of the week still. But I can't wait! I'm totally stressed out and feeling like a big baby for being nervous but I think once I get to start my day Monday with my new kids it will all melt away. I'm just going to roll with it.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow is my first official day of Teacher Prep. Everything's crazy at school right now. They are used to having only like 14 kids in each 4th grade class and our classes can have as many as 22. Right now, it's looking like we are going to have 23-25 kids each unless we can open up a new 4th grade room. We also know that in October the new family housing addition being built next to the school is going to increase our numbers. I have 16 desks in my room and there are no more desks available in the school. I'm trying to get my hands on some round tables with cubbies. Otherwise, I will have 9 students that I'll just have to start stacking on the shelves or something. My room is getting close to ready but especially because of the desk situation, it's not there yet. I went in to school today in a short sleeve shirt b/c everyone is going casual since we aren't officially back on and it is extremely hot in the building. My principal kinda freaked out over my tattoo. I promised it would never be seen when I am working. I felt stressed out afterwards, like I had ruined the good impression she had of me. A teacher on my team assured me that she would forget about it quickly. So that's fun.

Training, Day Two

Today I learned about data mining and professional learning communities. I'm glad that my orientation is covering useful stuff that I actually need to know rather than just basic don't-touch-other-people's-blood type information. Still, it felt like I sat in my metal folding chair for a year by the time the day was over. I also found that many people have not been as lucky at getting a job with this district as quickly as I did. Lots of people took other jobs while waiting to be hired here or they subbed with the district until they could get hired as teachers. I feel lucky and wonder why I got picked up so easily.

One thing I really liked hearing was that the district believes that if a student does an assignment and receives a bad grade, that grade should be recorded and kept unless the student puts in time and effort and redoes the assignment to show mastery. They believe that the highest grade should be taken and not just averaged in. I like this way of thinking and agree that having this policy in my classroom would make students more inclined to keep trying and keep working until they master an objective, rather than feel like the best they could get anyway would be a C. Before today, I probably would not have thought about having this policy but I'm glad to be able to have it as part of my classroom now. I also love that I don't *have* to have this policy in my classroom and that I have the freedom to choose it.

Another thing I took away from my training today is the importance of putting the standards and objectives in kid-friendly language. I am going to try to always introduce a topic by giving my students the objectives and having them rewrite it as a group into something that holds meaning for them. I will then keep their reworded version on the wall for the duration of our time working with that standard. Once again, I love that they shared this good idea with the results of its effectiveness without saying it was a mandatory thing.

In other news, I found out that the district has decided not to offer a sooner paycheck for incoming teachers even though they said they would. I had a slight freak-out today where I emailed anyone I thought might be able to assist me because I was counting on that check in my budget. I'm still mad that something was offered and not made good on, but I do feel more rational than I felt earlier this evening. I will tactfully complain tomorrow and prepare myself for the fact that I will not get a paycheck until a month from now.

Quick update

I worked hard in my classroom Thursday. I got many bulletin boards covered and bordered and got my welcome message posted on the door. I also found out that I'm on the discipline committee and had my first meeting.

Friday night I went to one of the other fourth grade teacher's house for her daughter's birthday. We had a good time, even though we didn't know anyone when we arrived. Everyone made us feel comfortable and welcomed.

Today I went to my first day of new teacher orientation. Harry Wong would be proud. Six days of orientation! Hopefully I'll feel like I know what I'm doing by the end of the week. To make it better, I found out that I will be paid a stipend for the orientation time! Sitting through sexual harassment training is so much more bearable knowing I'm being paid to be there! I also found out that I will be reimbursed for my out-of-state certification costs. It's wonderful finding out there is money coming for things I would have done regardless!

Pictures of El Paso, Juarez, and my classroom are coming soon.

I Got In

I went into my new classroom for the first time today. I found out that they are tearing up the office and putting it back together and in the meantime, the school's secretary and computer clerk are operating out of my classroom. They apologized for being in my room but I told them as long as I didn't bother them, they wouldn't bother me.

I was able to bring all the boxes of school stuff into my classroom, although the teacher moving out of the room still has some stuff to move and since I'm temporarily sharing my room, it's a little hard to figure out where I'm going to put anything yet. I was able to pull my car up right to the outside door of my classroom, which was really nice. I took some things out of boxes, put my in/out boxes on my desk, and mostly just stood around staring at the room trying to figure out where to begin.

I probably won't move any furniture to where I want it to go until I have the room to myself. I'm hoping to go back in tomorrow and sketch out where I want stuff to go. I still can't decide how I want to arrange the students' desks. A horseshoe, long tables, and groups of 3-4 desks together all sound equally good. I have a fear that I will have to physically place the desks in each arrangement to really decide what I want. Tomorrow I'll also take my stapler with me and start hanging up colored paper over the bulletin boards. I need to get some sticky-tack and yarn so I can hang up some of my posters.

I will also be hitting the dollar store this week looking for some plastic bins to organize teaching materials and stuff. I'm really trying not to spend a ton of money on my new classroom but there are certain things that will improve the quality of my life that are hard to resist, like this chair, even though I'm way too broke. Maybe next month I'll have to break down and buy it. I also need a comfy office chair. My chair right now is a blue, plastic student chair with casters. It doesn't exactly look inviting.

I also need to start a home-away-from-home drawer in my room where I can keep an extra supply of pantyhose, deodorant (for those mornings when I only remember to apply deodorant to one side, it's happened before), a sweater, breath mints, and a healthy supply of chocolate.

As I was getting ready to leave the school, I ran into another 4th grade teacher. She is amazingly helpful and has been emailing me back and forth throughout the summer. She gave me a tour of the school and introduced me to some of the other teachers. Everyone was very friendly. I was surprised by how small the school is after walking through the halls. One nice thing about 4th grade is we are the only grade in our hall. We are next to the library and computer lab, which is very convenient, and makes for a peaceful hallway. I also got to see the workroom where all the supplies are stored. Raiding that is on tomorrow's agenda as well!