Orientation...
(Copied from an e-mail I wrote earlier because I'm too lazy to write this out again)
I took a tour of my school today. It's actually a very nice school. It's got 800 kids. PreK-5th grade, with one PreK class, 6 classes in every other grade except 5th which only has 5. There are so many supports for the teachers. Mostly Hispanic students with a few Chinese (signs are written in English, Spanish and Chinese which is neat). They push-in instead of pull kids out and have one ESL teacher per grade. Collaborative teaching, one CTT (collaborative team teaching) class per grade, lots of academic intervention services (AIS) with a literacy specialist at each grade plus math coaches, speech, school counselor, adaptive physical education, literacy coaches, etc. Each grade has a mentor teacher. Plus the school has a school psychologist, social worker, and family worker. There's also after school programs with Center for Family Life and enrichment programs. Plus they have a relationship with the Lutheran Medical Office so there are nurse practitioners on site who can do physicals and stuff. They also recently got their field done with a grant they received and it looks awesome. I have to give my grade level preferences so I think I'll say 4th grade and then 3rd grade.
The commute was long, but I did some reading (but some talking too since we were excited). It'll just be 2 full days, MW for me. And getting up early wasn't that bad. I know that once I get into a routine of it it'll be fine. Gotta go do lots of reading now. Hope all is well.
I took a tour of my school today. It's actually a very nice school. It's got 800 kids. PreK-5th grade, with one PreK class, 6 classes in every other grade except 5th which only has 5. There are so many supports for the teachers. Mostly Hispanic students with a few Chinese (signs are written in English, Spanish and Chinese which is neat). They push-in instead of pull kids out and have one ESL teacher per grade. Collaborative teaching, one CTT (collaborative team teaching) class per grade, lots of academic intervention services (AIS) with a literacy specialist at each grade plus math coaches, speech, school counselor, adaptive physical education, literacy coaches, etc. Each grade has a mentor teacher. Plus the school has a school psychologist, social worker, and family worker. There's also after school programs with Center for Family Life and enrichment programs. Plus they have a relationship with the Lutheran Medical Office so there are nurse practitioners on site who can do physicals and stuff. They also recently got their field done with a grant they received and it looks awesome. I have to give my grade level preferences so I think I'll say 4th grade and then 3rd grade.
The commute was long, but I did some reading (but some talking too since we were excited). It'll just be 2 full days, MW for me. And getting up early wasn't that bad. I know that once I get into a routine of it it'll be fine. Gotta go do lots of reading now. Hope all is well.