Saturday, August 22, 2009

First Week Reflections

My first week of teaching is over!! Well, at least my first half week, which is so exciting!
The week went well, pretty uneventful regarding discipline, and not a lot of learning going on for the students because this was supposed to be "culture building week." I don't really know what that means...what it translated to in MY classroom was a lot of talking in small groups and a lot of worksheets on malleable intelligence. So, that's interesting.

My students were not ready to come back to school. The first day their faces were like "uggghhh you want me to read the rules and consequences, ugggghhhhh." Repeat that seven periods in a row. Yikes. My students are a wide range of people too. We filled out a survey on the first day of school asking about 30 different questions about their personal lives, their contact information, and their likes/dislikes of English class, etc. The students were good during this part, pretty silent. This was nice right? I really worked on that positive reinforcement I learned throughout Institute, constantly reaffirming the work of my students, whether it was someone who just read quietly or someone who filled out the survey completely, honestly, and thoughtfully.

Let me interrupt this reflection by saying I am lucky at C. My class sizes are as follows:
Period 1: 18 students
2: Prep period
3: 12 students
4: 8 students
5: 14 students (Jr. Girl's basketball practice)
Lunch
6: 7 students
7: 10 students (Sr. Girl's basketball practice)
8: 4 students

I am really happy about this situation. My first class, the biggest by far, has a mix of students with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and standard students, all integrated into an inclusive classroom. The class is fun, but obviously talkative, including a girl who sings throughout the class...super. But, I like having them first because it's the toughest and I am the most awake, fresh, and energetic. Bring it on folks, I am ready for you!

Anyway, I only had one incident this week (which I mentioned in the previous post). My malleable intelligence lesson (Friday) was a mess and the different classes did not seem to care that the could be motivated. We'll change that by the end of the year though.

I have a LOT of work to do this weekend, starting with what I am teaching next week. I am going to be making the unit plan, the unit assessment, and my lesson plans for the next week (and hopefully the week after that). My personal goal is to have week B lesson plans done while I am teaching week A. Meaning I'll always be a week ahead. This is in case I am traveling on a weekend, or have a busy weekend doing something else. The other reason I think this is pretty important is because this week I was DEAD when I got home from school. I was so tired and went to bed by 9:30PM each night. Oye ve!! That is going to be a problem if I am scrapping to get lesson plans done for the next day. Lofty goal, but important I think.

I slept yesterday from 4:30-7:30 PM, then from 12:00AM - 9AM. It was lovely.

1 comment:

  1. That's the schlopy tiger I know!

    Your room looks good....except that your desk is missing a name plate. I'll work on that; maybe I could put "Pita" on it. We'll see.

    I think that yeah, at first getting all your lesson plans done might be a task, but with time and experience it soon won't seem so much of a chore. Just like anything else, practice makes perfect. You'll be just fine. I hope the basketball practices are going well (though I suppose it has only been the first week), it sure seems like a good time.

    I can't wait to come and visit. I was looking at the weekend of either Oct. 17th or 24th. We can talk later.

    Keep up all of your great work!

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