Back to school time!
Tomorrow is the official start of the school year!! As a "new teacher" I've actually been working since August 9th going to seminars, meetings, working in my room, etc. I have my room pretty much all set up. I got much of it organized before I left in May, but there are a few little odds and ends I still need to finish up on. The first day I walked into my classroom last week was when it really hit me.... This is MY classroom!! I left it in May knowing I'd be back, but that feeling was so hard to believe after 5 years of searching for a job. It feels so nice to know where I'm going to be from day to day. It feels so nice being "official".
Also, as a "new teacher" I get a mentor teacher. My mentor is the other 7th grade science teacher who already helped me out so much last semester. She's an amazing person and I'm so happy to be working with her again. She told me something that the principal said when he asked her to be my mentor that I took as a compliment. He said to her "I don't know who will be mentoring who". She has said many times that she learned so much from me last semester. I just thought that was kind of a cool statement.
All of the science teachers got new Smartboards over the summer. If you don't know what a Smartboard is, it's basically an interactive white board. There is something called a Focus Machine that is hooked up to my computer and my VCR/DVD player and it projects onto the Smartboard. You can write on the board with styli, highlight stuff, use your finger to drag stuff around. They're really nice, and the ones we have now are even nicer. They're working on getting all teachers set up with Smartboards. Usually science and math teachers get them first. I think we science teachers got the brand new ones because we utilize them so much. I use mine every day. I hardly use my regular white board! The older ones were placed in other subject area classrooms. My dad came in on Friday to see my classroom and I showed him the things you can do and the activities I've created for mine and he was just wowed. The students really dig them too. It's a great motivator too because the kids really love to come up and write on them.
Well, I'm excited to meet the new bunch of faces tomorrow! When I was looking at my class rosters last week, I saw the name of a girl who I actually had at Whittier when I was there at the beginning of last school year. I think she'll be surprised when she sees me. She was one student who was really upset about me leaving at the end of the semester, so hopefully it'll be a good surprise for her. :) I was a little worried about what I was going to do on the first day of school and how I was going to get through all of the classroom procedures and expectations without totally boring the kids. I came up with a little game that will hopefully make things more interesting. And if there is still class time leftover I have a classroom scavenger hunt. Then Tuesday the real work begins. Time to teach some scientific method... WOOO!!
I probably won't sleep tonight. I'm so excited. I just can't wait to begin the school year! YAY!!
Also, as a "new teacher" I get a mentor teacher. My mentor is the other 7th grade science teacher who already helped me out so much last semester. She's an amazing person and I'm so happy to be working with her again. She told me something that the principal said when he asked her to be my mentor that I took as a compliment. He said to her "I don't know who will be mentoring who". She has said many times that she learned so much from me last semester. I just thought that was kind of a cool statement.
All of the science teachers got new Smartboards over the summer. If you don't know what a Smartboard is, it's basically an interactive white board. There is something called a Focus Machine that is hooked up to my computer and my VCR/DVD player and it projects onto the Smartboard. You can write on the board with styli, highlight stuff, use your finger to drag stuff around. They're really nice, and the ones we have now are even nicer. They're working on getting all teachers set up with Smartboards. Usually science and math teachers get them first. I think we science teachers got the brand new ones because we utilize them so much. I use mine every day. I hardly use my regular white board! The older ones were placed in other subject area classrooms. My dad came in on Friday to see my classroom and I showed him the things you can do and the activities I've created for mine and he was just wowed. The students really dig them too. It's a great motivator too because the kids really love to come up and write on them.
Well, I'm excited to meet the new bunch of faces tomorrow! When I was looking at my class rosters last week, I saw the name of a girl who I actually had at Whittier when I was there at the beginning of last school year. I think she'll be surprised when she sees me. She was one student who was really upset about me leaving at the end of the semester, so hopefully it'll be a good surprise for her. :) I was a little worried about what I was going to do on the first day of school and how I was going to get through all of the classroom procedures and expectations without totally boring the kids. I came up with a little game that will hopefully make things more interesting. And if there is still class time leftover I have a classroom scavenger hunt. Then Tuesday the real work begins. Time to teach some scientific method... WOOO!!
I probably won't sleep tonight. I'm so excited. I just can't wait to begin the school year! YAY!!