First Day

Tomorrow starts the first day of school and I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be! My current class list is now at 20, which is good because I have the room set for exactly 20 students. Any more show up and I'll have to rearrange a bit, but I already have a plan in mind for accomplishing that with minimum disruption if that happens. I still have to post pictures of the room!

I have to admit, despite being nervous, I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to put a little face to each name on the list.

I created lesson plans for our short, 3.5 day week (tomorrow is only a half day). That was a challenge, because I didn't really want to start too much content with only a three day week (plus the principal told me that no matter what, some students won't show up until after Labor Day anyway). We have a long weekend because of the holiday, and then next week is a 4 day week. Some of my "routines" I won't be able to start until our first full week because they are dependent on 5-day weeks.

I don't find lesson planning difficult, in general, but I must say, being handed a "blank slate" kind of threw me off. When I was student teaching, I picked up where my cooperating teacher left off, and she kind of told me where to go next. This time, I had to start from scratch. I know that when I was in school, teachers didn't always start with chapter one... they often jumped all over the place. Well, maybe I'll come up with a different plan for next year, but for now, I pretty much picked up the teacher manuals for each subject and started with some of the activities suggested in the "back to school" section, or just started with good old chapter 1.

I printed out copies of our state standards for 4th grade so that I can keep track of which standards I'm covering with each lesson (I intend to write the code for each standard covered next to the lessons in my plan book -- can't hurt to cover my butt a little). The standards are housed in a big, neon green binder that I will keep handy so that I can make notes, keep copies of my better lesson plans, keep copies of good resources I find, and so on. This binder will serve as my "Bible" for next year. Based on watching the other teachers prepare for the beginning of the year, I have a feeling lesson planning will go much more smoothly my second year, and continue to become even easier after that.

To start the year, we (the teachers and principal) attended a little retreat this past Thursday at a popular Catholic site in the city. We had a mass there with our Pastor from school and just the 10 or so of us. It was lovely and very inspiring. It really made me feel like I'm off to a good start.

Anyhow, I'm excited for tomorrow and not sure how well I'll be able to sleep tonight!