Back to School... Supplies.

Hey everybody!

Right now I'm sitting in my room anxiously awaiting my new friend's arrival so we can go School Supply shopping. We're both pretty stoked. (Ah new teachers, so full of joy, haha) She's only 15min away so I won't be here for too long but I just wanted to come in and comment on what's been happening!

I know I posted a few days ago about meetings and the like and mentioned the new teacher orientation. Well I've completed it now and I feel a bit more prepared about going into the classroom. I know that the first day is the most important of the whole year (though that always makes it the most frightening for me as a new teacher) and have been trying to plan for it accordingly. My main issue is that, knowing it's such an important day is making me dread doing anything for it! Everytime I think I know what I want to do I feel like I should do something different. I know that there's a lot on the line so I just want to be the best I can be. I want to give my students the best opportunity/learning experience I can.

I have 79 students for first term. Isn't that madness? 55 of them stay with me for the whole year because they're my precious little freshies. But I have at least two classes that continually rotate because I teach a different class every term (quarter). This term it's "Contemporary Fiction." It's a junior/senior elective so I was definitely expecting a small amount, say 13-15. Imagine my shock and awe when I looked at the roster to see there are 24! And there's a substantial number of boys in it too! I guess I assumed with it being a heavily reading intensive class I just would not see much of the male population. Hmph. Guess that's my fault for making assumptions early, huh?

These kids are teaching me something new and I haven't even met them yet. Ha.

Yeah, this is gonna be an interesting year.

It's been awhile...

I meant to submit this post last week sometime. July 26th actually. But, having issues with internet and being all tied up with the new apartment and such has made that challenging. So, here's what's up so far. :-)

Well, it’s been awhile since I wrote here, but so much has changed since my last entry.

Since then I’ve moved into my new apartment in Galesburg. It’s been a whole week! It’s interesting being on my own. Being so accustomed to having someone to answer to or someone to notify of my every move makes it quite an adjustment to only be accountable to/for myself. I’m still missing a few things that would make the place complete. Bed will be delivered next week. Still need a desk and a dresser. But still, I’m getting by.

All of this time to myself makes it really convenient to catch up on the reading and planning that I need to do for the year. I have a few things from my Freshman English class that I can begin putting together but I still need some fundamental things. (A textbook for example…) I’m about halfway through the book I need/want to read for the term so I can get an idea of what I want to teach and how. I know there are at least two books so far that have accompanying movies. So that’s cool. I need to come up with a few projects and assignments to go along with then. I want to discuss the issues but still keep everything interesting and engaging. (Any ideas welcome!)

I had another meeting last Friday too. It involved planning for a class I’m not teaching so I didn’t really have much to add. I also got my first glimpse of how things can so easily go awry when trying to have some type of order or agenda in a department meeting. Teachers all have their own ideas about how things should go so it’s often hard to make a decision on what the best solution would be. I ended up having to leave before it was over but I’m still glad I was there. Our next one is August 2^nd. I hope more gets accomplished.

The last thing to consider is that I have my new teacher orientation next week. NEXT week. That’s a beautifully frightening thing. I’ve done the meetings, I’ve talked to payroll, I’m even looking into getting a new bank account down here. But for some reason, having that orientation just makes everything so real to me. I’ll get to meet the new teachers and go through the rigmarole of being properly put into the system. It’s scary yet exciting. Hopefully my next entry will be reporting good news!

Now I’m off to do more reading and watch some Law and Order SVU. Oh the joys of a teacher’s summer. *smile*

P.S.- Stay tuned for a new post about New Teacher Orientation coming soon! Tomorrow's the last day. I'm pretty excited.