Back to School

It is absolutely unreal how fast that summer went.  But, I'm glad to be back at school, back in a routine, doing what it is that I love.

And today was a great first day!

Now that it's our third year in our building, I finally feel like I know everyone in it!  I started off my day at breakfast duty, and I loved getting to chat with former students about their summers and getting to introduce myself to new faces.

Then, when the bell rang, it was time to help everyone with their combination locks.  Last year, I think I was 18 minutes late to my first period class due to all of those pesky combination lock issues.  This year, I was only ten minutes late!  And when I walked in, I had thirty students sitting quietly in their seats waiting for me to arrive.

During our (shortened) plan time, the conversation among teachers on my team was very positive, everyone saying that they had a great experience with each of their classes!  Don't get me wrong, we know that there will be challenges, but we have high hopes that this will be great year.

At the end of the day, while on crosswalk duty, I was greeted with many hugs from more non-breakfast-eating students.  It's amazing to see how much they've grown, how their style has changed, how their voices have changed, and to catch up on what's new with them.  I don't know what I'm going to do when this year's 8th graders, who were my first class as a teacher, go off to high school and I no longer have these opportunities to stay in touch with what's going on.

But now, it's off to bed for this tired teacher.  I forget how exhausting the first day of school can be!  I can't wait to jump into the curriculum tomorrow!

State of the Classrooms

It's crunch time.  Tomorrow, we have meetings from 8:00-3:30, and our 6th grade open house begins at 4:00.  Students and their families will be in our classrooms, so today was the last day we had to get them in presentable shape.  For the record, I walked out of the building tonight at 9:35, just before heading to Wal-Mart to buy some last-minute supplies.

We had meetings this morning, but we had the afternoon free to work in our classrooms.  At the beginning of our work time, our classrooms looked like this:

Tiffany's Room

Barbara's Room

Taylor's Classroom:

My Classroom:

Remember the non-existent word wall I mentioned yesterday?

Still non-existent.  But rest assured, I stayed at school until 9:30 tonight in attempt to have something on that wall for tomorrow.

I have been way a teensy bit stressed out about the state of my classroom.  It's nowhere near where I want it to be.  Thankfully, I have one co-worker whose room makes me feel good about my progress.

Steph's Classroom:

As of noon today, it had hardly been touched.


We spent much of today's work time doing things like:

Cutting out lamination:

Working on lesson plans:

And posing for pictures:

It was a long, exhausting, busy day, but good progress was made.

Lest any of you are still thinking that Steph is a slacker for having done nothing to her room, I shall show you the condition it was in when I left at 9:30:

As you can see, Steph works quickly.

In closing, a celebration:  Today's 'Person of the Day' award goes to Mrs. Cownie for hanging out and helping all of us out tonight.

(Applause, please)

We owe you big time, Am!

Help Wanted

S/W/F teacher seeks to fill the following short-term, seasonal positions.  Interested applicants should submit a résumé, cover letter, and references, none of which will be read in-depth because of time shortages.  There is no salary and are no medical, dental, vision, or insurance benefits associated with these positions due to budgetary restrictions.  Baked goods and/or other fringe benefits will be discussed upon hire.  I am an equal opportunity employer. 

Creative Wall Director
Ideal applicants should have a creative vision for how to design a large word wall, which must include many colors and readable fonts.  All wall hangings must be straight.  Careless, crooked stapling will result in the loss of this position and all benefits.

Copyroom Assistant
This position involves standing at copy machine and scanning documents to be sent to our district's print center.  Experience working with MFDs is preferred, but not required.  Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, organized, and skilled at fixing paper jams.

Meeting Proxy
This position involves attending all required team, committee, and school-wide meetings and taking legible, detailed notes.  The meeting proxy will actively listen and participate in each meeting and will be responsible for typing and submitting a detailed summary of what happened at each meeting.

Director of Labeling
This position involves typing, laminating, and affixing labels for everything in the classroom.  This person needs to be thorough in examining contents of cupboards and storage totes in order to properly ensure that all supplies can be easily found by reading said labels.  The ideal candidate is also proactive in labeling other things around the classroom that would help the students or the teacher to more efficiently locate whatever is needed.  Job responsibilities also include labeling binders with student names, numbering textbooks, and stamping all books and materials with the school stamp.

Bargain Hunter
This position involves traveling to stores all over town in order to find the best deal on school supplies.  Items include, but are not limited to, kleenex, notebooks, pencils, folders, binders, markers, construction paper, loose leaf paper, and hand sanitizer.  No money will be provided for these purchases, so an interested applicant should be either overly generous with his or her personal pocketbook or resourceful in acquiring these supplies.  This position requires general competency in filling out donation request forms and interpersonal skills for begging store managers for mercy negotiating supply donations.

Curriculum Director
Interested applicants should have previous experience in planning lessons for middle level students.  A Bachelor's Degree in Education is the minimum requirement for this position.  Applicant will plan for the first eight (8) days of school, being sure to include plenty of icebreakers and name games.  Ideal candidate is someone who is familiar with Bloom's taxonomy, is skilled in using a variety of learning modalities, is a good time manager, and a thorough planner.  The curriculum director will collaborate with other staff to make sure all necessary meetings and orientations, pre-assessments, and reviews of expectations are properly scheduled in.  For this eight-day period, the curriculum director will also need to locate or create all necessary formative and summative assessments that correspond with the daily lessons.

The application process for the aforementioned positions is ongoing, and interviews wil begin immediately.  Thank you in advance for your interest in helping this desperate, behind schedule, frazzled teacher.

T Minus One Week

August 12th marked the one-week point. Only one more week until students would be walking through our doors. One week did NOT seem like enough time to get everything done.

Construction continued to move forward; every time I went somewhere, I discovered something new that had been installed or finished. I got all of my classroom supplies unpacked (HOORAY!) and I got my room all set up. Adam and I stayed late to finish our rooms. Poor Barbara hurt her foot yesterday and has to wear a walking boot. Rachael finished making the students' schedules, so we finally have a list of names of our students! Hour by hour and day by day, this was starting to feel more real.

Moving Day

August 10, 2009 was the day we had all been waiting for. We received an e-mail late the week before letting us know that we could FINALLY start moving in our things.

We started the day with a tour through the building. We were in awe of how beautiful our new school was - such rich colors, the elegant tiles, and the lovely woodwork that is everywhere! My favorite feature is all of the light that pours in from the outdoors. That natural lighting seems to bring in such a positive energy.

After taking in all of Schoo's beauty, however, reality set in. The construction was still not done. Construction workers were everywhere. There was plywood on the floors of the hallways, the academic connections rooms weren't finished, and the worst thing of all (in my germophobic mind) was that there was still no soap in the bathrooms. "It will all get done eventually," I kept reassuring myself.

The rest of our day was spend entirely on opening boxes. Boxes of books, boxes of suppplies, boxes of bookshelves... boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes. Opening and sorting, opening and sorting.

Overall, it was an exhausting day, but also a very good one. I'm finally able to picture in my head how things at Schoo will be this year. Things became more real that day, and I was just sure that it was going to be a great year!

In the Boxes on the Semis...

All of our stuff was packed up in boxes and loaded on semis. We had access to nothing. As I sat around enjoying the lazy days of summer, all I could do was think about all of my teachers' guides that were in the boxes on semis, instead of being in my possession. If only I could have had them during the summer, I would have felt so much more prepared. I could have planned out elaborate lessons with fun projects and experiments. I could have made PowerPoints and study guides. I could have searched for additional resources to share with my class. Instead, I sat around playing solitaire and chess on my brand-new MacBook.

I am a planner, and I need to know (rather, I think I need to know) what is ahead, both in the short term and in the long term. I had high hopes of filling the pages of my lesson plan book (which was also in a box on the semis) before school even started.

I longed to decorate my classroom with colorful posters. I wanted to stock the cabinets with the brand-new school supplies. I wanted to arrange the desks and write on the white boards and stamp the textbooks with the "Property of Schoo Middle School" stamp. The posters, the supplies, and the Schoo stamp were all packed up in the boxes on the semis, and these things just had to wait. To appease my need to be in possession of something that would eventually be in my classroom, I went shopping. I spent hundreds of dollars on school supplies for my students and packed my car with my new purchases. Those school supplies came with me everywhere I went as we awaited the day when we would finally be able to unpack the boxes on the semis.

Finally, that day came.

A Moment of Truth

One of the things that I was most looking forward to in advance of the opening of Schoo was the diverse population that our school was expecting. As a girl from a small town, I have come to realize what was missing from my educational career - the opportunity to know and work with people who are "different" than me.

One of my most favorite professional development days was the day when we took a bus tour through the neighborhoods from which our students would be coming. It was truly eye-opening. We began in the Highlands - a nice neighborhood with seemingly average-sized homes. Across the highway, we drove through the sunny Fallbrook neighborhood, where the homes were bigger, and the grass was greener (literally, not necessarily figuratively). From there, we drove to the Air Park neighborhood. Although these neighborhoods are relatively close in proximity, they are not similar at all. The homes were smaller, many of them appearing as though they might collapse at any minute. The bus ride through that neighborhood reminded me of those drives my parents used to take us on whenever my brother and I complained about the rough life we thought we had. The drives "south of the tracks" that were intended to make us grateful for all that we had been given. These kids would have to board the buses earlier in the morning than I hope to wake up.

There is much to be learned about people and cultures and customs and traditions, and I believe that learning about them first-hand is the only way. Sure, it was nice to have holiday parties at school and to be able to call that three-week vacation at the end of the year "Christmas Break." It was easy to go to a school where the teachers all looked like me and spoke a language which I understood. I never had to deal with going to school over my religious holidays or pack a lunch because the school cafeteria's food choice conflicted with my mandatory diet. If I needed a Band-Aid, I could be sure that the color of the bandage would match the color of my skin. I said the Pledge of Allegience to a flag of my home country. So many of these seemingly little things are a big deal to many of my students. I hope that my students appreciate the opportunities that they have to experience the kind of diversity we have at Schoo. It is truly wonderful. I am learning so much, and, for that, I am grateful.