So things of been pretty busy for me for this last month. I’m going to go back and write about my sisters wedding in greater detail but for now I figured I would write an entry about what’s going on currently.
I think that I have determined that a lot of my wrist pain has to do with typing on the iPad, but when I initially got my iPad I had ordered a keyboard to go with the iPad. Unfortunately the keyboard broke almost immediately and I have yet to get a new one. So I’m trying to do dictation instead of audio posts for every entry. I feel like this can make entries go by faster in terms of typing but also I think it changes how my brain thinks about what I want to say. When I write entries I end up taking at least a half an hour to an hour writing out every detail of the day, and verbally dictating an entry feels so much less natural because I’m not giving myself the time to think about what I’m going to say in the same way. There are also some issues with dictation not understanding the word I’m saying, for example, every single time I’ve said the word “entries” it has thought I have said something else. This is not a huge deal because I constantly make spelling errors when typing on the iPad anyway and end up with crazy random words sometimes.
Anyway, I’m going to write about this week first and then go back and backdate entries for my sister’s wedding and for this last weekend when I was at Ben and Sean’s.
This week has gone by crazy fast. I really struggled with my sleeping this week and I think it has to do with my increasing anxiety about the upcoming school year. Some of it also has to do with sleeping later during the day as I try to get every single scrap of sleep I can, because I know once the school year starts I will be getting so much less, lol. As a result, I have only gotten up with Steve a couple days this week.
The rest of my time this week has actually been mostly utilized in my classroom at my new school! Last Friday I had what was supposed to be a training, but ended up being a nothing, because the district thought they would have a contract settled for a math program but they did not. So there was nothing for us to do at the training? Molly, the other special ed teacher that I met at yoga, was at the training and had a lot of questions about the job because so far this summer we have heard nothing about what is expected of us. Luckily, there was another woman who works at Maplewood middle who texted the assistant principal and asked if we could come over! So that’s what we did instead of the training. We met with the assistant principal, Eric, and he answered a bunch of our questions and then we got to go to our classrooms. I met with Eric separately about how I will be gone next week and will miss sixth grade orientation. He was disappointed that I won’t be there, but reiterated how glad he is to have me this year. Then he suggested I get working on my classroom if I wanted to. So that’s what I did! First I went home and grabbed a bunch of stuff that I had from previous years and brought them back. This was crazy easy and fast because I live so SO close to the school. Once I had looked at the layout of my classroom, I was able to formulate a plan of attack.
I have never had a classroom to myself for any length of time. At Parkway, space is at an insane premium. There is no teacher who has an entire room to themselves. Often times during prep, someone else will be teaching a class in your room, or you will be teaching in someone else’s room during THEIR prep. It’s just the way it is. I was and continue to be blown away by the fact that it’s *MY* classroom, and I can do whatever I like with the space. I have spent the rest of this week buying materials and organizing the room. I’m pretty happy with how far the room has come, but as evidenced by the last two nights of not sleeping, my brain is really struggling to find ways to add color to such a starkly white space.
As for my schedule itself, I am mostly pleased with how it has turned out. My advisory will be sixth graders, which was disappointing at first because I prefer seventh graders and my caseload is comprised of about 15 sixth-graders and 5 7th graders. However, I suppose that it will be good to have all “new” students in advisory and me being a new teacher here. Also, sixth graders can be very easygoing with silly things and are so innocent and earnest.
My two gripes with the schedule are that I co-teach English one period and that my co-teaching math is eighth grade math... which is the only math that I have had no experience in teaching over the last four years. I’m pretty nervous about that, and disappointed because Pre-algebra is so fun to teach. But the good news is that I teach one pull-out math class and it sounds like the district wants me to focus on teaching to the skill level and not the grade level, which is exactly where my experience and philosophy are at*. I also will be teaching a social skills class, and I believe it’s only sixth graders aka less intimidating. As promised, I have half a period of due process (paperwork) time, and I have prep at the end of the day. All of my teaching is in the front half of the day and at the end of my day is more easygoing. This has been much of my experience teaching, schedule-wise, thus far. I also have half a period of “resource” time and Steve said that when he was in school, resource time was like a study hall.
Tomorrow I’m going to go in and try to get a couple questions answered (is there a laminator? What about big paper for the background of boards?), and maybe set up my “Sorry I’m not here for orientation but here’s a little about me and please tell me a little about you” table.
*To clarify - I teach a balance of foundational skills with grade-level expectations. I believe all students can do grade level tasks, just that some need more scaffolding, smaller steps, and reteaching than others.
( Before and after so far! )Let me know what you think! Any suggestions to make the place more welcoming would be good! Only thing - that big white space in the back can’t be blocked or have anything on it, apparently it’s a very important vent. I still have plans for more colored paper (such as on my cork board by my desk), those books in the back on the cart were just in my room, I was thinking of putting those on the shelves, but otherwise I have no idea what to do with the shelves (the empty bookshelves and brown and white space in the before pics).
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