A week later...

No, I didn't get eaten by first graders. Or our classroom rodent (that's right, there's a mouse that has come to visit us twice during lessons).

I have been swamped with work, which comes as no surprise I'm sure. I have been really good about making a list of manageable things that I know I can accomplish at the end of the day and NOT staying at school until 7pm. Unlike today. I just got home. But I was in a really productive groove and I didn't want to break it! I know I will always have more to do. I also know that after a certain point, I'm useless.

I've already begun using my parent helpers! I've got about five or six moms who have told me that they are willing to do cutting, pasting, assembling, etc at home for me! So if I can stay a week ahead in terms of my copies, I won't have to sit at home and cut out laminate, or staple books, or hole punch index cards! That's a lot of exclamations, but I'm really trying to "work smarter" and not harder. Burnout is no one's friend.

I do have one student who has been giving me lots of trouble. Lets call her Bridget. Bridget likes to do only what she likes to do. And now the class is getting annoyed with her. The other day at the morning game they started complaining about her. She hadn't been paying attention and didn't know what to do when the Zoom got to her. This was one of those moments when I was torn as a teacher. First, I didn't want Bridget to feel like the class was picking on her. Second, I thought it could be useful for her to know that her classmates were getting frustrated with her inattention. Third, I didn't want her to feel attacked. But number two won, because they weren't being overly harsh. And she picked up on it and continued the game. Well I come to find out that Mom started a reward system at home. If Bridget has 10 good days in a row, she gets a prize. Her behavior has improved, but now Mom is avoiding setting up the meeting between them, me and the assistant principal. Which really needs to happen, even if the reward system works. We all know that kids need to learn to self-regulate and understand why they need to pay attention. Extrinsic motivation will only last for so long. So here's hoping I can meet with Mr. and Mrs. Bridget really soon.

Coming up: Staff development day (which I think will be REALLY useful. We really need time to work on our units and to develop our English curriculum), conferences, MEA, and Halloween. AND AND AND!!! My house is getting a dog this weekend. Non-sequitur, sorry.

~J

Thirteen hours later...

So I think Back To School was a success. I had 7/20 parents show up. I got through all of the slide show. I was told to only give the info in English (rather than translating as I went along) because it would be faster (these are parents after my own heart- no time to tiptoe around the topics, just get to the point). I talked about math, literacy, homework, routines, and field trips. Guess what topic generated the most questions. Go on. No, not reading. No, not math. Nope, not even homework. Snack. Yes, 6/10 of my questions were regarding snack. What should we send? Is there anything that you really don't want? Should we send drinks? If I send apple sauce, do I need to send spoons? Can we do peanuts? What time is snack?

The other questions of the evening were: 1) How was the field trip to the nature center today? 2)If I want to help out, but can't be available during the day, can i still volunteer? 3) Can I give my child English spelling words during the week to do with me at home (eek, talk about a philosophical dilemma here....)? 4) Is it normal for my child to do work on their own but refuse to do anything in Spanish with me?

No kidding. 10 questions. All manageable. I answered # 3 by referring them to the assistant principal. And I got though all my slides. And even had time to let the parents play with the SMART board!

Too bad it was 13 hours at the building. I'm about to pass out....

~J

Bak-2-skool

Well, tomorrow is the night. I get to meet and greet and translate along the way. Slides are split-screen English/Spanish. And I get to say one thing, and then say it again. Fun. My big plan is to get them going with an ice breaker (I knew all those camp trainings and community building things would come in handy!) and then let the parents play with the SMART board at the end as their reward for listening. I stayed late today to get my handouts printed out- had to keep shaking the toner cartridge because- SURPRISE- we have emptied one! If we had a printer before school started, we could have staggered all our necessary printing. Lets just hope that we've got some for tomorrow night or we'll have lots of rooms without handouts.

Math is getting hard. We keep getting started but things take longer to do than they should. We do not have 90 minutes for math. We barely have 90 minutes for literacy. Don't get me wrong, I love art, media, and PE. They are so important!!!! But we need more face time with our kids. If we went until 2:30pm, we could get that extra math time. If only it was that easy!

And on that note. Lets discuss germs. I've been doing a lot with getting my kids to cough into their elbows and wash their hands. They seem to get it- they believe that washing their hands is a good things. The only problem is that our paper towel dispenser is in a stupid place! It's up on the wall behind the faucet- so that to rip off a towel kids have to hit the faucet. I'll get a picture to show you. Our awesome custodian Mark told me there's not a lot he can do about it but I just don't believe that he can't move it to the wall on the other side of the sink???

Wish me luck with my padres. I can handle them. Just keep that SMART board as their reward...

~J

TGI-viernes

Let's just say that it's been a long week. Not sure why. Today, when I woke up, it just felt like Friday. But then again, I've been hoping it was Friday since Tuesday so that isn't saying much.

Had to call my first parent today. Daughter. Nice girl. Lots of energy. Mom tells me that she goes to school for the social aspect and she'll get to whatever I'm teaching after she deals with all her friends. "Not to say that it's right, it just is." And I wanted to get through to her that if her social butterfly daughter is already getting sent to take a break in other classrooms in the second week of school, no one is going to want to be her friend because she's going to get them in trouble with her talking. Not to mention the fact that she tries to play like she doesn't speak Spanish when Mom totally confirmed that she's playing me. Or thinks she is, since I'm on to her it doesn't count as getting by me. She's a bright girl who chooses to talk when she should be listening- and we can all tell that I don't have the patience to give instructions eight times. If they would just listen the first time we wouldn't have ANY problems. But no. They're six. Enough said.

So yeah, calling a mom who seemed totally fine with her child being distracting to other students, was my lunch. Yesssss. Not to mention that we were down a Para today so the kids were in lunch alone until I told someone and at the end of the day we had a totally un-supervised exit from the building until another teacher had to call someone. You'd think with as big of classes that we have we could afford enough help to keep us staffed, but no.

On a totally different note, how does everyone feel about buying a t-shirt with one of the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are and wearing it to casual Friday? Since I don't have a school t-shirt to wear I hoped a literary character on my shirt would count as an educational prop and be tax deductable. Anyone? Oh and I am so excited for "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" and "WWWTA"- two HUGE kids movies coming out this fall!!!!!

i <3 books. Did I mention I got my educator's memebership to The Red Balloon? Yup. I'm so cool, I can hardly stand it.

~J

I never want to tie another shoe again!

Let's be honest, the first week of school is rough on most people- new and old traumatized students of all ages for all reasons, teachers, parents, etc. As far as first weeks go, mine was pretty uneventful. I didn't lose any children, I didn't have to call any parents, I didn't have any blood or tears. I do have the rowdy first grade class. They have ants in their pants. They also are little and still figuring out what school is all about and how to negotiate it all.

Oh yeah, and they all have shiny new shoes that probably don't fit them well and NEW LACES THAT DON'T STAY TIED! I have never been more of a fan of Velcro than I am right now. Aren't they supposed to learn how to tie their shoes in kindergarten? And button buttons, and do up zippers? As of yet, I have not made a tape box around my chair. That's because I stand. And they can't pet me if I keep moving. No, seriously. But we do have the most Kleenexes in one place outside of Target. Lots and lots of hand washing. No one likes influenza like illnesses, or ILIs as we call them.

Snack has been graham crackers that another teacher had leftover from summer school. Our lunch is really late, so 10:30am graham crackers doesn't curb that hunger. Lets hope the girl who is supposed to bring snack on Monday does. Please. Because we don't have enough graham crackers to get us through another week...or day.

And then there were name tags. Everyone is supposed to have a name tag so that they can be identified by any adults in the building. Also, it helps in getting to know your classmates if you can see and read their names. But I didn't find out about needing name tags until the Friday before classes started, at 3pm. Do you know who had name tags three days before classes started? No one. I went to 3 stores, called five, went to a few more. No one had plastic name tags. And today, three kids lost them and four more got wet and ruined. So much for using packing tape as makeshift until stores get things back in stock. Maybe next month. We'll see. I know their names, so I've got that.

And next week we may just have our schedules figured out. We've spend about 7 hours making and changing them, only to realize that first grade didn't have any common literacy time. So, we may have it figured out. I'll keep you posted.

And now this weekend I get to unpack all my stuff in my new house. YES!
~J

Success is relative.

About to pass out but wanted to put a little something down about our first day.

• We didn't lose any kindergarteners!
• I've got more kleenex than one person should have.
• Snack is going to be really boring this week, as I'm bringing it.
• I've got some kids that are really going to test my skills. I need to listen to what they are telling me- in their body language, in their talking, in their work. It's all there, I just need to pay attention.
• Everyone's favorite time of day is recess and lunch. Especially if you get a new playground in over the summer and all are anxious to test it out.
• DRINK WATER. I was practically hoarse by the time I stopped at TJ's for food in my new home.
  
• Lockers are a big deal, as having 21 backpacks along the wall is both a fire hazard and annoying.
  

Back at it before the sun!!

~J

Workshop Week= OVER

Well that certainly was interesting. The 5 days of prep, training, and get-to-know-each other activities was enlightening. Things that I learned in no particular order:

• our Superintendent likes to spend time with teachers, so much so, that he sat in on one entire training session to "keep it in the front of his mind." Right.
• communication sucks no matter where you go when you involve more than three people.
• I appreciate that I'm lucky enough to have grown up working with Powerpoint throughout my life. Those who had to learn it when they were older don't quite seem to get that reading exactly what is on the slide is NOT THE POINT. It's like an outline- a reference for what you want to talk about. Powerpoint should NOT be an entire presentation.
• I refuse to be a teacher who spends a fortune of my own money to run my classroom (ie. BUYING TAPE because it is absurdly expensive and if you don't believe me go to Target and look ). I will do what is necessary, but I believe in there being communal office supplies.
• being on committees is okay, but whenever possible get on the one that gets compensation.
• my zero tolerance for plain stupidity is going to be an issue....
• being the red-headed step-child of the school district doesn't have to be a bad thing. I can reach out to other teachers for "guidance" and get treated really well because I'm a new teacher and they won't hold it against me.
• setting up a classroom while moving is not a good idea. I don't recommend it to anyone. Ever.

There will always be politics in a school district- that's just the way it is. However, I feel that pride should get swallowed if what's best for the WHOLE is uncomfortable for one. If you're an assistant principal and your principal gives you a schedule (completed for all teachers for the year), you should take it and thank them for saving you lots of work. You should NOT criticize it, start over, make a mess of it, and expect your teachers to fix it. Because we have better things to do- like making Word Walls. Or writing journals. Or mailboxes. Or the Back-to-School newsletter that must be in two languages.

My mentor, Mrs. K, is fantastic. After a very un-helpful all-staff meeting, I told her that it didn't make me feel any better, just added more things to my list. She offered to email me copies of her name tags, and the class snack note, and bus tags, and family info questionare, and a few other things that are very important, but would have taken me two days to create in English and Spanish. And since I'm moving (okay, taking a break from packing to write this but you know what I mean) while I'm getting ready for the first day of school, I don't have two days to dedicate to document creation especially when I find out about it on Friday afternoon.

And so I left my classroom not 100% finished on Friday night. It's mostly done. All students have mailboxes, and assigned desks (that will likely change, but are set for the first week), and attendence slots. There are pencils, erasers and crayons on each table. I have my Word Wall up and ready to get filled in. My class newsletter is written in both languages, copied for each kid, and ready to get stuffed into the envelopes. I don't have my online log in for lunch counts and attendence. We don't have a schedule that will give us time for math every day. We do have time for literacy interventions, though possibly not enough teachers. I don't have scissors for each student yet, but I hope they bring in their school supplies on Tuesday.

And so, I will face my first day as prepared as possible. I know what I'm doing. I am bigger than them. And I'm already bilingual and they're still just learning. So I win. No matter how chaotic Tuesday is. Because it will be. I just hope we don't lose a kindergartener!!

~J