A Second Week of Reflection

So Week 2 is over and done with. The past two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotion. I learned even more this week than I thought I had learned last week. I’ve experienced more little victories and a few failures. But, most importantly, I left the building last night (before 7:30! Woo Hoo!) more in love with my job and what I am doing with my life.

I have noticed over the last week in a half that Miss History is not friendly with me. She is short in answering any questions, she is condescending to me in front of the students, and she is just not as warm with me as she was over the summer. We have no bells in the building, so it is up to our team to dismiss classes at the correct time. I know the times to dismiss, but when I look into Ms. Science’s classroom, she will still be teaching. I am terrified to stop instruction early because chaos would break out in my classroom, so I teach until the other teachers dismiss. More than once, Miss history will open my door in the middle of my instruction and yell, “Let’s go!” as her kids crowd around my door. I have told her repeatedly that I will not dismiss my kids until everyone is ready to dismiss. I don’t think she likes that.

Miss History also volunteered to host silent lunch in her classroom this week. That means she escorts all silent lunch kids to her room, and I bring her class and my class back after lunch. And they’re supposed to be silent in the halls. Students seen talking in the halls receive an automatic silent lunch. So I emailed her on Wednesday and suggested she might want to remind her lunch class of the consequences of talking in the halls, and she sends me a scathing email about how she is dealing with 25 students in silent lunch, so I should deal with the kids in the hall. She tells me to give them the concequence if they talk in the hall. Okay, no problem. So I assign 17 students silent lunch for talking in the hall. The next day, she is incredibly upset that she has so many students in silent lunch, so I offer to host SL with her — we can split up the kids. In front of our students, she says, “Go back to your lunch, StrangeNewTeacher (she called me by my first name). I can deal with this myself.” The kids just stared at us, and a few looked really shocked. I was mortified. I do not know how to deal with this situation.

I started teaching real content this week. My principal observed me on a day I had an awesome lesson — we were playing “Guess that Man!”, a gameshow-type introduction to the life and works of Nelson Mandela. The kids were engaged, I was having the time of my life, and my principal loved my lesson. The next day, Language Arts AP observed me while I was modeling think alouds with the students. Not quite as exciting, but a valuable lesson, nonetheless. Another positive review.

Students are beginning to behave the way I want them to — I have to remind myself it takes 21 days of doing something to make it a habit. Students have ben doing my procedures for 10 days. Many students are active participators, and there are a handful who haven’t started taking 7th grade seriously yet. 7th grade cirriculum is way more challenging than 6th grade’s, and students who coasted by last year will not be so successful this year. I have taken a quiz grade, 3 homework grades, and 2 class work/participation grades. All students did well on the quiz, but many have not turned in any homework or class work. This drops their grades down to Cs or lower. I emailed progress reports last night to parents. Hopefully, this will be the kick in the pants some of my students need.

This Monday was better than the last

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat. I drove to school with a huge knot in my stomach. I was more nervous to start the second week of school than I was to start the first day of school. What if the kids went buck-wild crazy over the weekend and forgot how I expected them to behave?!

All that worrying was for nothing. My students were, for the most part, wonderful today. All classes came into the classroom and got straight to work on their warm-ups, 2nd period behaved beautifully during the fire drill,  and the students actually learned some content today. I am thrilled.

I am also amazed at how some of my students accept responsibility for their actions. I had to assign a few kids silent lunch today, and when I told them, they accepted the punishment without backtalk, attitude, or whining. I was very proud of them. Then one student had to break out in song in the middle of my lesson and ruin it all.

When I prayed last night, I asked God to give me the strength to handle whatever happens this week. I don’t pretend to know what to expect from my students, but I need to be able to deal with whatever arises. Like a student doing a cartwheel in the lunchroom. It happened. I think that’s what I love so much about teaching this middle school students: they are never, ever, boring. Even on days when I’m teaching phrases and clauses.

I had a few small victories today. Allow me to share:

1. Ms. Thang came to school on the first day with a huge attitude. She was the stuff, and she wanted everyone to know it. For the first few days, she communicated with me through rolled eyes and the sucking of teeth. By Wednesday, I noticed her opening up a little in my class. By Thursday, she was somewhat-smiling. This morning, she SKIPPED up to me and said (with a big toothy grin), “Good morning, Mrs. Strangenewteacher!” I was floored. She was a different child all day long.

2. I introduced the story we will be using as our warm-ups this year to my classes. I informed them the story was about five 7th grade students who had two different kinds of teachers at their school: mean grumps who assigned lots and lots of homework and lectured all class period, and creative teachers who came up with fun and exciting lessons for the students. As I was describing the creative teachers, one of my students pointed to me. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me he thought I was one of those teachers. Now I am, by no means, overly concerned with whether or not 7th graders like me (it changes daily) or how much fun my kids are having, but I was flattered that this student thought of me in this way. It does feel good to have my students appreciate my hard work.

You Might Have Seen Me Around …

I’m that chicken with its head cut off. At least, that’s how I feel.

I have officially survived my first first week of school as a teacher. Looking back, I don’t know how I survived a few of those days. I have learned A LOT: about myself, how I want to run my classroom, and how I want to relate with others.

I knew I was going to have a few challenges at Open House when 6th grade AP brought a student in my classroom and told me he was my student, but he had been in her office every day last year. Anger issues. Swell. Then Leader of the Pack’s father approached me and told me to keep his son in the front of my classroom for every class. Yes, I have him more than once. In fact, I have him for 3 classes. In the front. Right next to me. It’s the highlight of my day. Overall, I have a few students who are going to prove to be challenges, but most of them are sweet. At least, they are sweet right now.

I’m doing great at the teaching thing. I teach 4 language arts classes, and I feel they are well managed and running smoothly. My homeroom is giving me issues simply because there is no structure to homeroom. Kids are up and yelling and basically just out of control. I have to escort my students to lunch and their connections class, and I am supposed to enforce silent transitions in the hallways. Have you ever tried to keep 45 12 year olds silent in a hallway? It’s near impossible, especially after 5 hours of academic classes.

By Thursday, I had had enough of the stress. Friday morning, students came into my homeroom to a message on the whiteboard;

“Good morning, Homeroom Students. You may go to your locker once during Homeroom. You may get up once to put away your bookbag. After that, you must sit in your desk and whisper with your tablemates. Your failure to follow these directions will result in a conduct cut.”

I was amazed at how smoothly homeroom ran. There was no yelling across the room, no mass of students huddled around a desk doing God-knows-what. Kids were calm and well-behaved. Friday started off great. I have also required all students who transition with me to carry their agendas in the hallways. If they talk, they get a conduct cut on the spot. I only had to give 1 conduct cut, then the rest of the 45 students quickly took me seriously. Fabulous.

Overall, I had a great week. I’m struggling with the administrative side of teaching. I get overwhelmed by all the dates I’m supposed to remember. I get frustrated when I spend all my planning time sorting through 100 emails. I’m confused by the actions of one of my teammates. But I love teaching. And I love most of my kids. There is one who I’m really trying to like, but he’s working my last nerve. There are issues with him I don’t even pretend to understand.

I’m exhausted. This week, I spent an average of 12 hours a day at school. I can’t continue that. My feet hurt. I have to re-work my bathroom schedule. I don’t realize how bad I have to pee or how starving I am until the kids leave my classroom. But worst of all, I have become a morning person. So here’s to one week down. 185 contractual days to go.

And so it begins …

The classroom has been set up. Open House has come and gone. A week’s worth of lesson plans have been created and turned in to my AP. Relationships have been formed with some really amazing teachers. All the help and advice you could imagine has been offered. The official school tshirt has been issued. The PTA fee has been paid just so I can wear jeans on Friday. Preplanning is over. School starts on Monday.

I think I’m ready. I hope so, at least. We’ll know for sure on Monday.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Monday was the beginning of preplanning at my school. I was supposed to arrive at the school at 8AM for a breakfast and faculty meeting. Of course, I got there at 7AM. Besides the custodial staff and the administration, I was the first person in the building. One of my APs commented on my early arrival, and she laughed when I told her I had to fight myself from coming in earlier. I’m that big of a dork.

I had been waking up earlier and earlier each day for the past week. I wake up in a cold sweat thinking of things I need to do before the students come next Monday. The past few mornings, I wake up around 5AM and cannot fall back asleep. So I tiptoe downstairs (my husband has threatened to take away my chocolate if I wake him up that early) and twidle my thumbs for about an hour. Then I get dressed and head on into school. I may be known as the over-achieving brown noser, but dadgumit, my anxiety level is much lower now.

I expected Monday to run similarly to the way things ran at Student Teaching Middle School: slow, uneventful, and slightly boring. Boy, was I wrong! Let me tell you how the events of the day proceeded:

Around 7:30AM, other teachers began filing into the school. There was a lot of hugging and squealing and catching up; then someone put on some techno music, and the 7th grade hall became a literal dance floor. At 7:30AM. A few minutes later, we all decided to make our way to the cafeteria (“we” being the huge and happy 7th grade family; I guess that makes 7th Grade AP the “Big Daddy.” That’s what I will call him from now on — he would like that). The cafeteria is located in a separate building, so as we entered the building, all you could see was pitch black darkness. Then a disco ball. And a strobe light. Then you realize that ringing in your ears is School Improvement AP blowing a party favor in your face. And you see a few more APs whitegirldancing to “Celebrate Good Times”. And there’s another AP taking everyone’s picture as they file in. And they’re all wearing sequined top hats and silly vests. And I thought it would be boring.

Fast foward through an amazing breakfast and a series of introductions from people who realized I was new and seriously overwhelmed – my principal starts the faculty meeting (but not before she and the other 7 APs do the “Cupid Shuffle”. Don’t ask me why). It seems my school did not make AYP last year due to a very small number of SWD not passing the Math CRCT. Principal informs us that a very brave special education teacher volunteered to tutor 36 students and have them retake the Math CRCT later in the summer. Principal then tells us she has the results from the retake in this envelope. She opens the envelope, and … the students had all passed the CRCT! The state will review the information and give us AYP for last year. Heck, let’s do some more celebrating. 

That afternoon, I met with my teammates to discuss how we want our team to operate this year. I love my team. Ms. Math and Ms. History are about my age, so we get along really well. Ms. Science is older then us, and she is practically a genius. They are all incredibly helpful and make a serious effort to not laugh at all my stupid questions.

Next we had a grade-level meeting, hosted by Big Daddy himself. I met the 27 other 7th grade teachers, and Big Daddy gave us a little pep talk about doing as much as we could to take care of behavior problems before we send the kids to him. 2 years ago, the 7th grade teachers made 1,612 referrals. Last year, they made 632. This year, we’re shooting for 200. Go team.

Today was very much the same: I’ve finished setting up my classroom (which looks really good, by the way. My principal came in today and complimented me on a good job) and attended a few more meetings — including a cirriculum meeting. I was a little lost in the meeting, so my mentor teacher (who rocks) has offered to plan with me on Thursday.

I am so pysched for the school year to begin. I know it’s going to be a challenging year with many ups and downs, but it has started off so well. The homeroom lists went out yesterday, and they’re now posted on the front doors of the school. So now, every time I walk out of my classroom, I see eager seventh grade eyes peeking in, trying to get a glimpse of their homeroom classroom. I get very excited thinking some of those eyes belong to my students. I hope they stay that bright all year long.

They got me — hook, line, and sinker!

Today was the final day of New Teacher Training in my county: a big hoo-rah involving the Big Cheese Superintendant and the director of the county’s Chamber of Commerce. The past week, I have been working with the new teachers at my school (there are about 20 of us), so I was shocked to find myself in a crowd of 1,048 newbies (that’s the exact number) to the county. That’s a ton of new teachers! I guess I should not have been surprised since rumor has it that about 10,000 applicants showed up for the job fair in March.

The past few days, I’ve learned all about the new teacher mentor program, I’ve met my mentor (who’s freakin’ awesome, by the way), I’ve undergone technology training (but don’t ask me how to use any of the software on my laptop — I’m totally lost! Whatever happened to recording grades and attendance on paper?), and I’ve been given a brief overview of my school and its values. From Day 1 on, I have been in love with my school and the leadership. I’m hooked.

Fast forward to this morning’s orientation at Huge County Convention Center. I was introduced to the Big Cheese and members of the board. I was told that Huge District is actually the largest (and best, in their humble opinion) district in the state — and it ranks up there in the country. I was welcomed to the family and told over and over again how awesome I must be to be asked to join such a world-class school system. I bought into the whole thing, and I cried. Yes, I cried like a fool. As I was sitting in the auditorium hearing all the wonderful things people had to say about my school system, I realized (perhaps for the first time) that I am a real teacher. Finally. It’s taken 6 years, but I have arrived. Pass the tissues.

So, my friends, I finish this incredibly intimidating week sold on what I’m doing with my life and where I’m doing it. I’ve bought into it. I’m their’s. I report to school first thing on Monday morning to begin my week of preplanning, and then my littles come! I am both stupidly excited and terrified at the same time. I am so ready to jump in and get started, but I am fighting back feelings of dread at the same time.  When I think about the very near future, I tear up and belly-laugh at the same time. The life of this new teacher is full of contridiction.