my first week

hello to anyone who might be reading my blog...hopefully friends and family!

i decided to renew my blogging--or at least attempt it--to keep some kind of record of what my first year of teaching is like. so far, it's been great. i just finished my first week. every day was exhausting--but i never knew that i was tired in the midst of teaching. it was just by the end of the day every day that i realized that i was bodily and mentally tired. plus, i had after school commitments monday, tues and wed--school, district, credentialing stuff. it made for a slightly hectic week. and my busy life is only beginning, as i am balancing school commitments (teaching, meetings, supervision, reform work, committee work, etc) and credentialing work (seminar, reading, reflections, assessments) and TFA (reflections and observations, a few saturday conferences, monthly wed meetings.) so yeah...i'm a little bit nervous about balancing all of that stuff but i have successfully navigated many other things, so i figure this one is manageable as well.

so the first week of school: it's basically learning names, learning about students, building classroom culture (easier said than done), introducing rules, consequences, motivational systems (extrinsic--think earning parties), teaching kids classroom procedures. every day when my students walk in the door they shake my hand and look me in the eye and respond to me when i say "good morning" or "good afternoon." there are a few with attitude and they refuse, but we move on. my huge smile elicits a big smile from them, too, and i get to acknowledge and check in with them individually each day. they sit down and begin the "do now" which is a journal assignment or other writing assignment, or a set of sentences to correct for spelling and/or grammar and/or punctuation.

[NOTE: i started this a week ago, after my first week ended. then i never came back to it. so i'll post it as-is as a record of my first week, and my next post will be about week two.]