Survived the first week.

Only 174 more days to go!

The two hardest things about going back to school for me are 1) getting up early and 2) getting used to being on my feet all day again. (Exhaustion is why I haven’t been around the blogosphere at all this week.)

I hate getting up early.  I love waking up, looking at the clock and being able to roll over and go back to sleep.  This alarm clock thing is for the birds.

But – other than those two things, this week went quite well.   My biggest class is small by Utah standards, where 36 in a math class is normal and 75 in a P.E. class is not unheard of.

The mix of students in my classes is quite good, meaning that I don’t have one period that is chock full of kids that play off each other and cause the class to be hard to keep on task.  I’ve got some of my favorite students from last year back in my classes, and some really cool new ones.

Looks like it’s going to be a good year (knock on wood).

Prima Settimana

Thus endeth the first week of school.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this week a 10.

The clickers worked with minimal issues.  The students actually paid attention when I went over the class expectations and procedures and (don’t be shocked) the online math program worked for almost 95% of my students.

Oh, and the two S.B.O. boys contained their goofiness and, other than a small audio issue, the announcements went smoothly.

My 8^th Grade classes are ‘rest-of-the-world’ small, (25, 26 and 27 students).  I’ve got a group of girls that drove me crazy last year all in the same period, but there’s enough room to keep them apart.

My 7^th Grade classes are a bit bigger (30, 33 and 33), but by Utah standards, they’re still small. (Most  years my overall average was around 35, and I’ve had up to 42 kids in a math class).  They seem like a good group, and there are a few that are going to walk the line between annoying and hilarious.  Line-walkers can be my favorite students, animated enough to keep the class lively, but with just enough respect that they allow me to teach the class.

My Tech Crew looks good too.  I don’t have a shining star like last year, but I have the same talent spread over several students.  One student is going to build a teleprompter for the studio and another knows Adobe Master Suite well enough to produce what I think will be a really awesome intro for the “News” (the announcements).

The only drawbacks so far (knock on wood) are aching feet and a sore throat – I do a lot of talking the first few days.

Cobwebs on my blog.

This week I’ve met over 130 new people.  In the next couple of months I’m supposed to get to know them well enough to ensure that they are academically successful and emotionally secure.

I had to make my academic and behavior expectations for them clear enough for a 12-year-old to understand.  And throw in just enough entertainment to keep them from falling asleep.

I’ve had to help them find their lockers, and help them open them, find their next class and make them believe that the world will not end because they are a couple minutes late to that class.

I’ve kept my cool as 30+ of them at a time were having issues connecting to the computer network, and then the Canvas site, and then the Acuity testing site.

I’ve gone from spending most of my days mindlessly puttering around the house or blathering about irrelevant things with friends, to having 30 pairs of eyes watching every move I make. And trying to keep those eyes on me rather than spending their time catching up with friends they haven’t seen since last June (or at lunch yesterday).

I love my career, can’t imagine doing anything else.  But these first two weeks are completely and utterly exhausting.  That’s why I haven’t been by to visit all my favorite blogs, and why mine has been growing cobwebs.

And why every night this week I’ve fallen into a deep sleep by 7:30 pm.

Here’s to one more week of 10 hour sleeps, as I get the curriculum ball rolling.

Week one, over and out.

…. Well, I survived the first week, exhausted and ready to sleep Saturday away completely. Not only was it week one, but it was elongated by Back to School Night, the evening parents are invited to meet all their student’s teachers. We didn’t have it at either the High School or the Jr. High in the South Salt Lake Area, but at both schools before that we had it the week before the kids showed up. Go figure. Anyway, that meant that Wednesday was a 7AM to 8PM kind of day. Phew!

…. No school is 100% perfect, and even though my new school has it’s problems I am really happy that I’m where I’m at. My 8th grade classes are great, I’m having a really good time with them, especially my Advisory class. The one class that is causing problems is (sue-prise, sue-prise) my 9th grade class, and I have them every day instead of every other day. I’ve had to email one parent, am waiting for email addresses for 5 more from the office and have had to bring one student down to the office already. Hopefully once we start working in the computer lab (that’s why we meet twice as often) they will get a little more interested and cause less problems. Hopefully.

…. I’ve figured out which are the fun teachers on the staff and which are the ones to just not joke with. The PE teacher, who is the wife of a guy I worked with before, is hilarious. I walked in while she was making copies, she had the wrong master on the machine, so she pulled it off in the middle of copying, and stuck her hand over it. Got a nice shot of the whole hand, including he thumb ring. So, I asked her for the copy and told her that I was going to put it up on my wall and see if the kids could figure out which teacher it was. Of course i didn’t say anything to the kids, figured I’d just let them discover it. Every time I ran into the PE teacher (which wasn’t more than once a day since she is on the opposite side of the building) she’d ask (with the look and tone of a anxious 6 year old) “have they noticed yet?” Yeah, we’re going to have fun.

I have met the enemy, and I am theirs.

After 2 days I've seen all my classes, and probably at least 75% of the students that will be in them. Overall, I'll give them a 9.5. I worked for one year at the feeder Jr. High, and then did summer activities with them a second year, so I've known a lot of my 9th and 10th graders since they were in 7th grade. (The 10th graders were actually students of mine). So, we had some pretty good conversations about their Jr. High teachers, some good laughs and even got some work done in class. And I didn't even have to kick anyone out of class, at all, not just in the first 3 seconds (see Paperback Writer's blog of Aug 22). I did have to redirect one of the New Comer students (non-English speakers who have been in this country less than 1 year, it's a whole separate program housed at our school) to their correct class, which took a considerable amount of time. So, I guess you could say I kicked her out, but I guess it really doesn't count since she was a real sweetheart and was just lost. I have a couple of kids that are going to push things a little bit. But I don't get the feeling any of the classes is going to be pushing me all year. Both 4th periods (A & B day) are going to be very interactive groups, they happen to both be Geometry classes. They are talkative, and did wander off subject, but weren't too hard to corral back into the conversation I wanted. 3A (Algebra) was a little bit more obnoxious, mainly because it is full of 9th graders and 10, 11 & 12th graders that have already flunked Algebra, at least once. One girl is trying to make up some Math credit for graduation, so I have her in Algebra 3rd and then Geometry 4th the same day. I looked at her and said "So, you're not going to be late for Geometry too often, are ya?" She just smiled and shrugged. I've already had the requisite inappropriate comment. I was talking about hall passes and how after they're used the only thing that get's you out of my class is either puking or bleeding. (Ok, how many of you already know where this is going?) Yup, she actually raised her hand and when I called on her asked "Does it matter where you're bleeding?" I have to say I'm proud of myself because I came back with "No, but don't try it more than once a month." The beauty of high school was that it got a good laugh and then we moved on. It also told them "No, you're not going to freak me out or embarass me" which research has shown 43.75% of all things high school students do is for those reasons. (I, uh, made up that statisti, ok?) My UBSCT class was the hardest of the bunch, not because they were obnoxious or anything, but because I couldn't get them to talk. The class is to help Juniors and Seniors that were close to passing the UBSCT, to give them enough so that they can pass the test. I have 10 registered for the class, only 5 showed up. We took a pretest and then I started going over stuff they missed. I fele like that teacher on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". You know, the teacher that says in total momotone "And then what happened in 1776?, Anyobody, anybody, anybody. They signed the Constitution. And who signed the constitution? Anybody, anybody, anybody....." (Note : For you Beullerophiles, that is not a direct quote, please do not correct me, it was just suppose to elicit the memory of the actual scene) Anyway, with only 10 students I should get a lot done, but I'm not counting on it being a lot of fun.

These are my impressions after 2 days. We'll see if things are the same after 40......