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!