no concept of time

Sweet baby Jesus! Has it already been a week since I've last posted? Let's just say that planned agenda from my last post was an epic fail. ended up snapping at my dad as soon as i got home and went promptly to bed. by God's mercy, i slept a healing sleep of eleven whole hours to begin my slow recuperation to the living. and the words to sum up pre-service week for me?

i. survived. the. week. 

First Day of School

Objectives: 

• To discuss and understand classroom expectations and routines. 
• To go over the syllabus

Agenda:

• Fill out student information form
• Warm-up: T-shirt activity
• Go over classroom procedures and expectations, syllabus

Reflection:

• Honors Geometry with eighth graders
• small class of angels who all know what to do and do it!
• was able to get through the agenda and meet objectives
• Next time: would not spend as much on going over the general rules because they already know!

• Math 7 with sixth graders
• it was a hot mess. large class of munchkins who just came in from lunch, sat where ever there was an open seat even though there were two seating charts in the room. they had never ending questions and in the middle of the shortened period, i had to get all the students up and point out each assigned desk for the students. 
• managed to give out the syllabus and student inventory before the bell rang
• Next time: Will give students almost the whole time for T-shirt activity and not attempt to go over the syllabus on the first day. overload of information will result in no absorption of said information. 
• Good advice from my resource teacher (RT): Introduce expectations and classroom routines as you encounter it in the classroom, i.e. how to pass in papers. 
• Have students line up outside the classroom where you greet them. Ask them if they remember their assigned seat, tell them explicitly that you expect them to enter quietly and wait for instructions
• You see, sixth graders are like kindergärtners, they can't handle more than three directions at any time. Be clear and walk through what you want from them with them until they get into the routine.

Day 2: Reflections

Today was a beautiful day. Finished going through classroom routines that are particular to my class in both of my classes and managed to almost complete the geometry lesson on the basic building blocks of geometry (undefined terms and more!). Got my geometry students to go up to the board to unveil and read the many new definitions aloud to their classmates. Seems as though the beginning of the unit will be more lecture-esque because i have to pound in the vocabulary words  Took a long time but i have the flipchart (similar to a powerpoint presentation on the interactive Promethean board) prepared for tomorrow, a slight variation off my friend's. 

Implemented advice from my RT and the dynamics were completely different. i was in control and the students were respectful, listened to directions, and i did not entertain their questions whenever they pleased. classroom management is key, ladies and gentlemen. without it, learning cannot take place and it is impossible to teach content meaningfully for the students. Gave both classes an overview of Unit 1 so that the students have an idea of what they'll be learning and a rough outline of when their assessments (quizzes, selected hw, unit tests, etc) will take place. 

• Next time, don't forget to take attendance. 

deliriously tired

dear friends,

this sapling is deliriously tired. this week confirms what i've always known about myself; i become a zombie when i clock in less than 6 hours of sleep. i was constantly closing my eyes during meetings today while exhaustion slowly enveloped me. everyone noticed. my professional development teacher at the school, my resource teacher, a fellow new teacher, and my old science teacher now colleague were just a few people who asked me about it. no joke, i was so tired that i felt frazzled and ready to cry, but i had no reason to aside from self-inflicted sleep deprivation. everyone was very understanding and pulled me aside to make sure that i take it easy (the kids aren't at school yet!) and don't burn myself out. it was very comforting and i really appreciate them looking out for me =) i now have a shoulder to lean/cry on, literally, a wall i can bang on when i go crazy (my next door classroom neighbor), and a great group of teachers looking out for me.

what can I say? God's love is so good. 

tonight's agenda:

• begin looking at some of the files my friend gave to me 
• begin thinking about and compiling what i need for the first day of school
• go to bed early 

calm before the storm

school has yet to start and i'm already exhausted from orientation. oh dear. this upcoming week will be pre-service week, intensely packed with setting up my classroom, faculty meetings, and severe lesson planning while attempting to wrap my head around all the information i need to absorb. haven't been this busy since high school so i will simply have to brace myself and roll with the punches. bring it on!

i've been going into school for the past couple of weeks when i could to acclimate and get to know the people i will be working with. this past friday was very productive with my posters finished and laminated, all ready to get hung up. will need to post pictures!

at church, we started a a makeover for the children's room and it's coming along beautifully! the room's almost ready for primer and then we'll be painting a calm cornflower blue. some of the kids were so eager to help that they would get frustrated when they had nothing to do, what enthusiasm! i'm super excited to help give our children a nice room where they'll have Sunday School, i can already tell that it's going to look fantastic.

the best school homecoming

has three days already past? wow! this week has been orientation for new educators at one of the local high schools where i have been flooded with procedures, curriculum, classroom strategies, different ideas, and paperwork that needs to be taken care of. the sheer volume of information crammed into a few days is overwhelming, no wonder why new teachers feel that they're over their heads! fortunately, i have been doing my homework over the length of this summer by reading some helpful teacher guides while learning much from veteran teachers.

the books i read are the first-year teacher's survival guide and math teacher's survival guide, both published by jossey-bass teacher, both of which i would recommend to anyone entering the classroom. they're deeply informative, address a lot of questions concerning classroom management that i did not learn in my education coursework, and have plenty of lists with the nitty-gritty things to keep in mind! i'm currently finishing up the first days of school by harry wong, a favorite among educators and very well known. practical and definitely has helped me mentally prepare for my first days of school.

today for orientation, all new educators reported to their assigned schools, which for me was the very middle school that i attended! the kind of school i wanted to teach at with the kind of students i wanted to serve, and the first school to call in for interviews. God truly hears our heart's desires and i couldn't have asked for any other school to begin teaching in. and to put the icing on the cake, today was the best school homecoming i ever had, and there wasn't even any music or dancing! this speaks volumes, because i attended all the school dances with my friends and really like getting into the rhythm.

i was able to greet teachers and the administration that i've gotten to know last week when i came into the school to get acclimated while pleasantly surprising others who remember my face! i think that the best part was being able to get to know some of the people that i will be working with, having goofy chats and meaningful conversations while getting to know them as individuals. there won't be as many opportunities to do so before school starts because pre-service week is wickedly busy with meetings and sessions to help prepare teachers to begin the school year on the same foot. 

i've been getting so many good ideas from others that i can't sleep at night, trying to figure out how i can borrow these ideas and incorporate them into my classroom. i'm definitely feeling it now and will have to figure out some way to push myself to the point where all i can do is sleep when i hit the pillow. great motivation to working out and getting ready for football season!

rhyme and reason

to record and remember my year as an intern
and to share my life with those who wish to hear
begins my adventures as a sapling
which we'll see before i start rambling =)