You never get second chance to make a first impression

Monday, yesterday, was the first day back to school after the holidays. More significantly, it was my first day as a full time certified teacher. No more student teaching. No more working under someone Else's system. I am now on my own, and it's a little scary. But, not as scary as I thought. I really feel prepared to handle my classroom and the students. What I don't feel prepared for is working in a place where I don't know anybody and no one seems to be looking to help. The other faculty members all seem nice enough but they don't seem to be overly friendly. Lots of smiles and Hi's in the hall but no one is really talking to me. But, I'm not there to be buddy-buddy with the faculty am I. No, I'm there to teach and that is what I plan to do.

So far, the students seem pretty cool. I have a mixture of achievement levels. For the most part I think these students are smarter than they think they are. I want to challenge them but I don't want to scare them. I feel like I'm gonna be doing a lot of balancing between pushing them and backing off to build confidence. One thing I don't want to do is overwhelm them and have them give up in the first week. At the same time, I don't want them to think this class is a cake walk. Yep, I'll be balancing.

I planned to be real firm and strict(maybe even hard and mean) the first couple weeks. But at the last minute I decided to go a different direction. I let them know up front how we would run the class and what my expectations for them are. I also made them list there expectations of me. Now, we can hold each other accountable. I only gave them one rule. Rule #1: You are not allowed to fail this class. I made them write it in several different places. They will hear me say it everyday this semester and it will remain posted on the board. I will not let anyone fail. More importantly, I will not let them let themselves fail. Failure is not acceptable. I was still firm but I used humor and tried to make them feel comfortable in the class. At this point I don't see a problem with controlling the class. I hope I'm right

I feel like I could use some guidance from a fellow teacher but I guess I'll have to press that issue myself. All in all, It was a good first day