(no subject)
went to the school yesterday and signed some paperwork. yay, that was very fun. haaa. actually, it was quite informative. i found out lots o' stuff. which was definitely very good. basically the teacher before me suuuuucked so this means that pretty much no matter what i do, i'll be better than her. which is comforting. no big shoes to fill. but, of course i have my own expectations to live up to, which are pretty high. i have a lot of stuff to do but i'm pretty excited. now i just have to figure out where to begin. i've been reading the books i was given and i know i have so much more to read: teaching books, books i'll actually be teaching, writing lesson plans, figuring out activites, actually fixing up my room! it's sort of overwhelming but in a nice way. because for once in my life i'll be getting paid for it. granted, i'm sure the wonder and allure of that will run out soon--when i pay bills, rent etc, but it's still nice to be doing lots of work and actually getting some monetary compensation. and i'm going to do my best not to buy a million things with my own money for the classroom. because then i'd be ridiculously poor. i've found out that you can easily beg stores and say it's for the kids, please i'm a teacher, please lordy i need this for the KIIIIIIIIDS, and they'll generally give you things. like carpet. that's my first thing. and cliff's gonna make some book cases for me! yay! ps: my classroom is ridiiiiiiiiculously small. i need a carpet to make it feel nice and to make it feel like a reading room and to take up some of the sound so that with 18 7th graders, i can at least attempt to hear myself think. this room is like so ridiculously small, it's unbelievable. i'm thinking it's going to be pretty hard to fit 18 desks in there and my desk and books and a lot of other stuff. eek. but, it's a charter schoooool. it's gonna be rough, but it's gonna be an experience. i like that i have a lot of imput into what i teach. it's basically up to me though i have a general outline. that'll be rough, but i'll be good because when i see some need or something i want to do, i can probably figure out a way to do it.
also, got a call today for some place (i didn't hear where, i had just gotten out of the elevator) who wanted me to interview for a LA position and for once i got to say, i already have a job. mwaahaha. i'm so glad i took this job. it's just so good to finally be putting the pieces together and figuring out what things i have to teach and what i have to do to prepare. i was left virtually nothing from the previous teacher. even if she did leave anything, i doubt it would have been much good. i also found out that i can pretty much read what i want for the read alouds though there are suggested things. i'm going to have to figure out my classroom management plan, this is quite different from working with 5, 6, 7, or 8 year olds...try adding like 8, 7, 6 or 5 years to the age i'm used to teaching. but i'm going to be pretty strict and not let anything go. i am thinking about giving some sort of prize for keeping your book in good condition (apparently the kids basically eat the books) I just don't know what would be a good prize. no homework pass? idk what else i can come up with...i also want to do some class rewards so that they're pushing each other to behave etc. idk what those should be...maybe something like listening to the radio for a few mins or something once a week. kids like that. doesn't cost anything. i doubt i'll be able to show movies, but we'll see. i could always bring in my own tv or something, the small one. but ugh that'd be a hassle. idk i'll think on it.
there are more things i learned, but for now, it's back to work...almost lunchtime!
also, got a call today for some place (i didn't hear where, i had just gotten out of the elevator) who wanted me to interview for a LA position and for once i got to say, i already have a job. mwaahaha. i'm so glad i took this job. it's just so good to finally be putting the pieces together and figuring out what things i have to teach and what i have to do to prepare. i was left virtually nothing from the previous teacher. even if she did leave anything, i doubt it would have been much good. i also found out that i can pretty much read what i want for the read alouds though there are suggested things. i'm going to have to figure out my classroom management plan, this is quite different from working with 5, 6, 7, or 8 year olds...try adding like 8, 7, 6 or 5 years to the age i'm used to teaching. but i'm going to be pretty strict and not let anything go. i am thinking about giving some sort of prize for keeping your book in good condition (apparently the kids basically eat the books) I just don't know what would be a good prize. no homework pass? idk what else i can come up with...i also want to do some class rewards so that they're pushing each other to behave etc. idk what those should be...maybe something like listening to the radio for a few mins or something once a week. kids like that. doesn't cost anything. i doubt i'll be able to show movies, but we'll see. i could always bring in my own tv or something, the small one. but ugh that'd be a hassle. idk i'll think on it.
there are more things i learned, but for now, it's back to work...almost lunchtime!