first week done, only... a lot more to go.

Have I ever said that pre-service week is my favorite? It is. During the school year, the faculty never seems to have as much time together to just hang out and discuss what we do/how we teach as we do during pre-service week. I love it because I remember why I love what I do, I love sharing ideas with other teachers and I love seeing everyone else before the stress of the school year and SOLs sets in.

Since we switched to the 4x4 block schedule, I only have three classes.
Those three classes are:
First block: English 9. 25 kids. All awesome & sweet. I love freshmen!
Second block: English 11. 25 kids. I knew most of them. Three are seniors trying to graduate (one showed up late last year, one had medical issues, and one got majorly screwed over by a long-term sub last year). I was a little worried about how this class would interact, but so far, it's been better than expected. We finished reading the first act of The Crucible already and actually had some fun getting through it. Even though this class will probably be my rowdiest of this semester, I have a few things on my side: the two SOLs (the writing one is in October! OCTOBER!! One month from now! AHH!) for this year, maturity, and football season (most of the boys in the class are on the varsity football team, so they have to behave in order to play). Also, most of these kids have a very good sense of humor and are very bright, so this has the potential to be my rowdiest, yet most fun class. Thank god it's during the start of my day, though. I don't think I could teach this class at the end of the day.
Third block: Study hall/planning. Our study hall is paired with AP classes that meet every other day. We have about 5-7 students that are in study hall every day, then the rest of the 28 total students enrolled come to us every other day. Math Teacher Next Door & I share this study hall duty in order to give us both a break as this is our only planning period for the day. So far, we've decided on a 2 day on, 2 day off schedule. The kids are nice, I taught most of them in the last two years.
Fourth block: English 10. 26 kids. I knew a few of them and a few of them coming in were very excited to be in my class---that's a nice feeling. A few of the kids I have this this class that I taught last year said they missed me over the summer! How sweet, right?? So far, this has been my best behaved class I've EVER had at the end of the day. They are smart, chatty, and creative. We already finished one short story--the longest one we reading English 10--and they actually got into it! That was great! This class has great potential.

So far, I love all my classes, but I realize that we are in the "honeymoon" period that happens at the beginning of every year (or semester). We'll see how things change over the next month. I hope they don't change much because I really like all of my students and classes so far. I'm also already pretty used to the 4x4 schedule and seeing the same students every day. It was a lot easier to learn their names & quicker to grade their stuff and makes copies since I have a LOT less students now than I ever had before. I hope next week is as good as this week was!