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!

the fifth year

"Update your blog" has been on my to do list since the last time I posted. There wasn't a whole lot that I had to say, so it never felt that important or urgent to do.

Let's talk about summer school. It was better than I expected. I had ten students: one for English 10, two for English 11 and the rest were for English 9. All the kids were awesome. Two of them were former students of mine. The English 9 kids were pretty awesome. I also got compliments from two of the parents/grandparents involved. If I was to do summer school again, I would prefer not to teach three sections in one classroom. It's not that it was difficult, it just felt like the kids were being cheated out of a full summer school education. I had to cut a few ideas and assignments I had because there was no way I could do them with three different levels in one class. It went more smoothly than I expected, though, and I made enough money in the month of July (summer school only went from July 1-29) to cover my summer class tuition and buy a new laptop. Teaching summer school also made one of my class projects--a pretend observation as an administrator--easier to complete. The major bummer of teaching summer school was that  I missed the opportunity to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I got to see them around my birthday in June, at least, but it would've been nice to surprise him on his birthday.

My grad program is off to a good start. Two classes down and... a few more to go. I know for a fact I (barely) earned an A in my School & Community Relations class. It was so difficult to do! She kept taking one or two points off of papers that she didn't really explain in the first place (so frustrating), and then wouldn't really explain why she took off points. I only got full credit on one paper, and that's only because it was the second of its kind, so I knew exactly what she was looking for (plus, it was on an issue I really cared about). The other class I took this summer had a professor that was a little absent, so I can only assume I (and the group I worked with on 3 of the 4 assignments) got an A. I know that one of our projects he really loved, and I'm going to assume I did okay on the others? If not, I definitely got a B. Either way, I'm happy. I was really intimidated and not really into these two classes at the beginning, but ended up pretty happy with what I did.

I finally started working (seriously working. as in: actually writing stuff down instead of just thinking) on thinking about new things I want to do this new school year. Did you realize it's the fifth year I've taught? I mean, that's kind of crazy. I realized the other day that I don't feel nervous at all about this year. First, every year has brought less anxiety and nerves. Second, this is my third year at this school, so I'm pretty comfortable in the school. I have a good group of teacher buddies in the school, an awesome carpool buddy and I know most of the students. This is a good feeling. Third, I'M NOT TEACHING A NEW PREP THIS YEAR! YES!! This is probably the best feeling. Every year, I've had a new grade to learn. This will be the 5th time I've taught English 10 and the second time for English 9 and 11. I'm glad the English 11 textbook we offer isn't much different from the one I used before, that will make it much easier. I feel pretty good about my English 9 course, I think I did pretty great (better than I expected, that's for sure) the first time around, so the second (and third? since we'll have two semesters? haha) will be even better.

The only change I'm slightly worried about is changing to the 4x4 schedule. It shouldn't be too bad, though, because we already teach on a block schedule and I taught an every-day schedule for summer school (and that was a 4 hour class! so much more time!). The first semester will probably be rough, but it'll work. I've got three preps, a new co-teacher, and a new class of freshmen (who I've heard are pretty wild). The mantra I'll probably be repeating to myself throughout that first semester will probably be "take it day by day". I'm actually not too worried and not planning too much since I'm not quite sure how this all is gonna go down--just like everyone else in the school. (Plus, I'll actually have a planning period EVERY DAY! No more four-class-in-a-row days!) It should all work out by the second semester (well, hopefully earlier than that, but the second semester should be when everyone fully adjusts and knows what to expect).

The First Week

The first week of school is over and we're now heading into the second. This one was my fifth first week of school, and the fourth one by myself. This was definitely the least amount of nerves and the smoothest start to the school year. That is a nice feeling.

So, my students are still in the honeymoon period, where their true selves haven't quite shown up yet. We haven't had any breakdowns, meltdowns, blow ups, etc. yet. You gotta wait until after Thanksgiving for that (or Halloween, if it's gonna be that type of year).

I started the year off with two ice breaker games: Did you know bingo and candy introductions. Both went really well, thankfully, and the kids had lots of fun. We also started off the year with a new project that combines them identifying their purpose in English class and creatively expressing themselves. I also started off this year with a quiz on basic grammar concepts, which most students did well enough on to make me happy.

Here's the run down of my classes:

1st period: Mostly freshman, with a few repeaters. Pretty quiet so far, but starting to warm up.

2nd period: Mixture of first time freshman, freshmores, and a few that are taking English 9 for the third time. Most of the kids are chill, but the repeaters are a little testy already. This class has the girl that listed 4chan as her role model and "trolling" as an interest & hobby as well as the atheist boy who said George Carlin was his personal hero. I have a lot of different types of kids in this class, which could be awesome or completely horrible.

3rd period: Mostly freshman. I'm not sure if I have a repeater. I also have the least amount of kids with IEPs and 504s in this class. From day one, this period has been HILARIOUS. I absolutely love these kids already. This class is full of personality, intelligence (their journals were fantastic) and energy.

5th period: My new 5th period is so quiet compared to last year's! They were a little quiet to begin with, but when they're done doing their work, they like to play Would You Rather? a lot.

7th period: My 7th period last year was pretty awesome, but I think these kids beat them. There are a lot of really smart, intelligent and energetic kids in this class. From day one, this class came in ready to learn & have fun. We've already had some great discussions. I'm looking forward to spending the rest of the year with these kids.

I'm hoping that my odd day kids can stay as awesome as they've been, since I was given a full schedule on that day. I have four classes in a row on odd days and only two (2nd and 5th) on even. It's pretty lopsided, but I'm getting used to it.

As for my former students, quite a few have stopped by or yelled hellos at me in the hallway. One of them is my student involvement worker this year, so I see her every day. We had a Unity Day to welcome in the freshmen last Thursday and once I walked into the gym, a few of my former students spotted me, yelled and whooped. That's a good feeling!

Pre-Service Week '09

I love pre-service week. I love being able to have a whole week to work in my room and talk to teachers about our ideas for the upcoming year.

What did I do with mine? The usual: working, meeting, chatting, sweating, moving, bitching, moaning, and being professional developed.

The thing I worried about most this summer was confirmed on Monday. I was moving rooms. The administration didn't have a certain answer for me when I left in June, but I got an answer on Monday. All of Monday, between Convocation and a school-wide meeting, I moved from my upstairs room to my new room downstairs. I'm no longer in room 208, but I'm not changing this blog again. :)

At first, I was frustrated. Why couldn't they email me during the summer and let me know? I would've come in earlier and moved! Then I decided just to get it over with and see it as a fresh start for this year. Last year, I moved into another teacher's spot a week into the school year and never got to set up the room the way I wanted. This year I got to do that and I got to do it in a new room (a blank slate). By the time I left on Monday, it was all set.

Tuesday started off with parking in my new assigned parking spot. It is sooo much better than the one I had last year. It's on the academic side of the school, so I no longer have to walk all the way through the school to get to my room. It's also right next to the door. Since I had to move rooms on Monday, I decided to bring in all the supplies and books I bought over the summer on Tuesday. This new parking spot made the two trips I had to take so much easier. I quickly put away all of the supplies and headed off to the first professional development of the week.

The first PD of the week brought great news (for me, at least. Some weren't too happy about it): we are switching to a 4X4 block schedule next year. WOOO! For those of you who have no clue what that means, it means we are switching from a 7-bell schedule (7 classes for the whole year) that has 4 classes every other day (one meets every day) to a schedule with 4 classes per semester that meet every day for 90 minutes each. I love the 4X4 schedule, probably because the HS I graduated from switched to it and it made my life a lot easier (and I learned a lot more). As a teacher, this means a lighter student load and one planning period per day. Also, the students can no longer use the excuse of the every other day schedule to claim they don't remember homework, tests, quizzes, etc.

After that PD, we were let loose for lunch. The county I work in has a lot of new development happening, so we headed to one of the new restaurants that opened over the summer. Since pre-service week is one of the few times in the year where teachers have enough time to go out for lunch, most of my department jumped at the chance. We headed to what my department chair now calls "The Fox & The Hound". We actually went there twice during the week and it was DELICIOUS. I was so surprised! A lot of students from New School work there, too, which is cute to see.

Wednesday was full of working, chatting, and a meeting or two. I finally finished my syllabus for English 9 as well as English 10. I had to finish my room so it was ready for Freshman Orientation the next day. My room and my syllabi have never looked better! I think this is definitely the best job I've done of getting my room and information together.

Thursday was the Busy Day. It started with Freshmen Orientation. The freshies went off with Link Crew to have fun and be introduced to the school and upperclassmen who can help them through the year, the parents were stuck with us. First, we sent the parents to the auditorium to meet VIPs, then we went them to homeroom to sign papers, then I had to meet the three classes of Freshie parents. After meeting the parents, I watched all of my former 10th grade babies walk by in their new Junior attitudes and positions as Link Crew leaders. They were excited to see me and I was excited to see them. They were doing a great job and I beamed with pride as they walked by. A few of them stopped by after they were finished, lamented that I wasn't teaching English 12 anymore, and told me they'd talked me up to friends that have me this year.

Let me tell you, I hate meeting parents. I love talking to parents after I've met them, but I hate getting ready to meet them and I hate the initial "Let Me Tell You What My Class is About..." speech while they stare at me. I hate it mostly because I always end up right in front of the parents who give me the look that says, "You don't look old enough to teach my child. Are you qualified?" Nothing makes me more nervous than seeing that look on a parent's face. Gives me chills just thinking about it now.

One really awesome thing happened while I was meeting parents: A parent of a sophomore I had last year told everyone in my 1st period group that her daughter just loved me and my class last year, and her daughter hated reading and writing. I told them all I paid her $20 to say that. At least my 1st period parents will have good reports for their kids...

Anyway, I met a lot of parents, gave them my selling points, then breathed a sigh of relief and talked with the teacher next door about how much we were sweating after it was all over. She looks young like I do, so we bonded over the fact that all the parents probably think we graduated from HS last year.

As if meeting parents wasn't torture enough, we were sent to a three hour long professional development about high standards. This lady lectured at us for three hours and then said, "This was supposed to be 4 days." FOUR DAYS of PD into THREE HOURS! There were no breaks, either, so at one point in time, my legs cramped up and my bladder almost burst. I'm one of those people who hates getting up in the middle of someone talking, no matter how badly I need to and no matter how badly the lecture is because I had a few teachers scare the ever-loving daylights out of me whenever I needed to get up in their classrooms. It's a phobia that's stuck with me even though I highly doubt anyone would interrupt their own lecture to tell another professional to sit down. I ended up doing it anyway when I just couldn't take it anymore and everyone else in the room had gotten up and moved at least once.

I have no clue what she said for the last 90 minutes, either.

All in all, this was a very productive pre-service week. My room is set up, the homeroom materials are on the desk, the syllabi are copied and ready, and all my ice breaker games are ready.

There are so many positives so far this year, that I can't help but feel that it's going to be great. I have a new classroom and a great bunch of teachers that have welcomed me to the first floor. I have a great administration: a new AP who is hilarious, and a principal and AP that complimented me on my ability. I have former students who have stopped by and who have made me proud already. I have a department chair who is hilarious and a department as a whole that are motivated and connected. I have a great new co-teacher. I've already had another teacher say they want to come into my class and see what I do and learn from me. My room is next to a teacher who cracks me up and is new to the school, like me.

Basically, some things are new, but I feel comfortable. I know what I'm getting into, I know the people I work with, I even know some of my new students. I still have a few nerves and anxieties about the first day, but this year I'm not half as nervous as I was before. I don't think I'll ever meet a new group of students without some nerves, and I'm okay with that. I think this year will be a lot more smooth than last for many reasons and that makes me incredibly excited.