My Last First Day Ever
I have officially completed my last first day as a first year teacher. I'm pretty excited to be done with that for sure. I was impressed with the first day and it was a lot worse than what I initially expected. I started off the day by forgetting snack AND my keys to the mobile. Thank goodness Rebecca's key works in my mobile and I didn't HAVE to have snack. So that was okay even thought it was a slight inconvenience. Because Susie had duty we had to leave here by 6:55 (but we actually left by 6:50). Yay for us for making it. Because we got there early I had time to tape down nametags and collect my thoughts. Then Lena showed up early and I was almost late getting down to pick up my kids. I finally got to meet my assistant, Mrs. Latimer. The kids were quite the assortment: some excited, some quiet, a couple crying (one so bad she threw up on Mrs. Latimer!!) and it was quite interesting. I didn't think we'd EVER leave the cafeteria. I had a problem with Mrs. Latimer trying to take over the class for the first half hour or so. I couldn't really take over because I didn't really know how the morning routine should be handled. So I let her do that and then I took over. I did a really good job with the read-aloud and lucky me...Mr. Adams walked in during the middle. He mentioned it during lunch and again at our after school meeting. That was definitely esteem-boosting for me! For the most part I covered what I intended. I didn't do calendar, snack, or music and movement, but we did do 2 or 3 read-alouds, practiced our walking in line and chant, repeated the rules NUMEROUS times, recess, lunch, and an hours worth of centers AT LEAST. I even spent enough time telling the kids about the centers. Tomorrow I need to ensure that the kids do a better cleaning job.
Mrs. Latimer is okay . . . she intends to do all of the paper work which makes me feel pretty good but also kind of lost because she deals with a lot and leaves me uninformed. She also took it upon herself to correct a child AFTER I said I didn't want to start discipline until tomorrow. That irritated me. She also moved some desks around in the back of the room. In actuality it works better but it makes me mad because she doesn't have the right to do that without asking me first. It IS my classroom and I AM the one that spent the past two weeks working on it! She mentioned she SHOULD have come in yesterday. Uh yeah, SHE SHOULD HAVE! But whatever, it's fine and I'll work it out. Oh, except that she decided MY papers for the parents were not "important" enough to be sent home today. The forms from the school WERE sent. Whatever. That isn't her decision to make either! Mr. Adams said I was going to have to be firm. This isn't my forte but I guess if I want things handled my way, I'll have to do just that!
But besides the regular stresses of day (LUNCH WAS AWFUL), I am happy with the day. I'm going to keep drilling the rules into them until they have them memorized. This week is all about familiarizing themselves with the classroom, me, their classmates, and RULES.
So it's over, I'm satisfied, and I don't have to deal with this ever again!
Mrs. Latimer is okay . . . she intends to do all of the paper work which makes me feel pretty good but also kind of lost because she deals with a lot and leaves me uninformed. She also took it upon herself to correct a child AFTER I said I didn't want to start discipline until tomorrow. That irritated me. She also moved some desks around in the back of the room. In actuality it works better but it makes me mad because she doesn't have the right to do that without asking me first. It IS my classroom and I AM the one that spent the past two weeks working on it! She mentioned she SHOULD have come in yesterday. Uh yeah, SHE SHOULD HAVE! But whatever, it's fine and I'll work it out. Oh, except that she decided MY papers for the parents were not "important" enough to be sent home today. The forms from the school WERE sent. Whatever. That isn't her decision to make either! Mr. Adams said I was going to have to be firm. This isn't my forte but I guess if I want things handled my way, I'll have to do just that!
But besides the regular stresses of day (LUNCH WAS AWFUL), I am happy with the day. I'm going to keep drilling the rules into them until they have them memorized. This week is all about familiarizing themselves with the classroom, me, their classmates, and RULES.
So it's over, I'm satisfied, and I don't have to deal with this ever again!