First Day Down

I made it through the first 2 days! They were a little rocky at times, but today was definitely better than yesterday, so upwards from here! (Hopefully).

I'm fortunate enough to have an Educational Assistant (EA) in my classroom. Today we talked about how I am keeping in the back of my mind that it has only been 2 days, and they will learn my expectations, and things will settle down. But on the flip side are the students who we flagged coming into the school year, who are doing amazingly right now, but it has only been 2 days, and they are going to get fired up.

With the first 2 days down, I now find myself scrambling to plan things to fill up Thursday and Friday before the weekend. Tomorrow luckily I catch a bit of a break, as my class has their first music class, and there's also a school wide assembly, AND it's early dismissal. Friday is looming large in the back of my mind though.

It goes back to what I said earlier - teaching is not necessarily hard work, but it is a lot of work. (A lot is one of the Word Wall words I gave today. Oooh, connection!) I have heard many teachers say that it takes 2 - 3 years before you get a curriculum down and know what you want to teach and how you want to teach. So coming in, sorting through 2 curriculums I'm not familiar with, in a class that, so far, has shown little patience, is going to be a bumpy ride. I'm planning on spending most of my weekend organizing and planning.

Some things I need to plan:

• my reward system. Right now my students need a lot of reminding about proper behavior in the classroom, and I'm going to dole out mad rewards and then scale back. I'm planning on using a ticket system my mentor teacher used, which will end in a weekly draw.
• Early finisher work. There is a wide discrepancy in my class of knowledge and skill level. I have a few 'keeners' that I need to keep busy, or they will get bored and start acting up. I'm planning on giving each student a binder that is divided into the different subjects, and when they finish early they go to that binder and work on something that I've placed there for them.
• Grid - another reward system. They have a chance to earn stickers daily, for bringing their agenda back signed, doing daily reading, and showing up on time....or maybe for having their homework done, I haven't quite decided yet.
• I need to talk to my principal and find out how to best assess a split class. I'm assuming I'm teaching the Grade 3 students French....but do I put it on their report card? That sort of thing.
• And....pretty much everything I'm planning on teaching for the next couple of weeks.

September is going to be rough. My husband already knows not to expect me around too often, and I've already put him to work cutting out some laminated things I brought home today. I'm hoping that if I put in some good hours on the weekends, my evenings won't be as insane.

First comes the call

I got a job! School starts in 4 days and the call just came in. This results in initial excitement (yay money!) followed by panic and stress (I don't have anything to fill a classroom; I have to plan a curriculum; what am I going to do with them on the first day?!? Here kids, just color for 7 hours.)

I'm taking a Grade 3/4 split which adds more panic. How do I teach 2 curriculums?! I'm trying to keep in mind what my vice-principal last year said: "It doesn't matter what you teach them, it matters what skills they learn." The skills they learn can be applied to any thing they learn.

Also...after many years of working retail and mindless jobs, I find it more than a little bizarre that you are just plunked into a classroom and told "Go." People tell me "Oh Rochelle, you had practicums, that was your training." But that was in December! I've just been sitting around watching old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since then! 

Today is Day 1. One day at a time!