First day!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I survived. I can't say it went perfectly, but I feel pretty good about my day in general.

I got up early this morning to head into school to make copies. It was just as well, because I don't think I got 20 solid minutes of sleep the whole night. While trying to fall asleep, I had a hundred worried thoughts in my mind and if and when I did fall asleep they made it into my not-so-restful dreams. So when the alarm went off at 5am I wasn't entirely surprised.

I set up all the stuff in my room last week (and it looks pretty nice, I'd say) but I still had to do those last minute things like double-check my PowerPoint, write the agenda on the board, finalize seating charts etc. School starts at 8am, and we started today with Advisement (similar to homeroom, but with a curriculum) which is usually 4th hour. All my kids were either asleep or pretty nice. I had one girl ask me to change seats because she didn't get along with the girl I sat her next to (drama, drama) but of course she talked non-stop to the kid next to her new seat.

We went through the student handbook and then the students had to interview each other from the (odd) questions from the curriculum. Does anyone truly have a favorite aisle in the grocery store? We had an odd number so I interviewed Shannon (who Nacia, the other English teacher, and I agreed is such a sweetheart). Then I had everyone introduce each other to the class.

My next class, Soar to Success, is my struggling readers class. I opened with a little trivia and had them fill out a survey (TIP: kids apparently need to be reminded both to put their names on their papers AND to turn over a two-sided worksheet). Then I went over my rules and procedures PowerPoint. Apparently in a little too much detail. We finished it before the bell, but we didn't get a chance to play the game I wanted to play at the end of class.

Determined to fix this mistake second hour (Language Arts), I sped up the PowerPoint/Syllabus presentation a little bit and jumped into the game. Of course, the game didn't take as long as it should have because nobody really tried, so I broke the cardinal rule of not making the kids work up to the bell on the first day. I felt super lame. Luckily, this is the class I plan on making work the hardest, so I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Third hour is a prep/RTI tutoring hour which I didn't start today. Man, I'd love some training for that right about now. Sigh. Hopefully Bernie, the para, can give me some insight on what I need to do to test these kids this week. I'll have to talk to her tomorrow.

My last class of the day (right before lunch) is my Dystopian Lit elective. By this time, all the kids were awake and super talkative. But in a weird way I kind of preferred this group because at least they were interacting with me a little. I got them started on trivia and the survey, got through my rules and procedures in a reasonable amount of time (3rd time's the charm!) and decided to do a different activity than the game I tried during 2nd hour. Like I did the first day of student teaching, had each student go around and tell an anecdote about their name. The kids liked this and it was a smart idea to get their names in to my brain. I'll have to come up with something similar to do with 2nd hour (my biggest class). I also talked up the books we're going to be reading in that class and they seemed pretty pumped.

I felt the most sorry for students who had me several times today (I see one particular student 3 times, but he was pretty easygoing about it).

I ate lunch with the other teachers, who were already pretty annoyed with certain students. I suppose it's because they already know many of the students from last year, and I still had my students fearing the unknown. Behavior tomorrow should be radically different.

Another teacher uses my classroom after lunch, so I parked myself and my computer up by the front desk where the Special Ed Teacher was working one-on-one with some students. She sweetly introduced me to a boy named Noe who is in two of my classes. She challenged him to work harder this year while praising him as a really nice kid. He was embarrassed but glowing. It was cute.

I sat there for the afternoon, getting some things set up on my online gradebook. Usually I'll pull some students out to tutor during that time, but today I had a chance to sit and observe the action at the front desk, as well as regroup from the morning of classes. It's a pretty good schedule; I'll actually have time to prep before I leave the building.

After some last minute furniture moving and a staff meeting in which we made a list of all the pregnant and parenting students (there are quite a few), I stopped at the library to get a library card and check out the audiobook for "Feed." Then I came home, showered the day off me and I'm sitting here having some dinner.

I feel okay about the day, but a little nervous that it went too well. Jane, the principal, asked me if any kids challenged me today. There were talkative ones, but I didn't get any crap. I know that won't last long, and I know I need to stay in that hard-ass mindset.

Tomorrow: quiz on rules/procedures, "vision letter" to the teacher