A new day, A new school

Today was the first day at my new school. This is prep week. Today the seniors came in to pick up their schedules and books. I met a few other teachers. It seems like a nice place and the people are friendly. But it doesn't quite feel at home. Hopefully it will once we get into the swing of things. I'll keep you posted.

Civics, so it seems.

Not that anyone reads this blog. Especially since I haven't updated it since January, but just in case I do start using this blog for the purpose that I created it(venting, asking questions, and telling the story of a first year teacher), I thought you all should know that in 2008-2009 I'll be making the switch from teaching world geography to 9th grade civics. I would prefer to call it government or American Government, but since the state calls it civics, we'll call it civics. I have less than a month till school starts so I probably need to start prepping soon. any suggestions?

Lesson Learned

I think I learned my first valuable lesson today. Pick your battles. Some teachers try to fight every battle, and it drives them nuts. They want everything their way or the want every student to follow every rule exactly as they see it. These teachers are the most miserable people in the building. The never smile, never say anything positive, and seem to be the least attractive(in my opinion because of their attitude, not physical appearance).
On the other hand, there are those teachers who let everything slide. they let students get away with everything for the sake of being the "cool" teacher or to avoid having to deal with misbehaving students or enforcing school policy. These teachers cause the most headaches for teachers like me. Every time I ask a student to do, or not do something I get the comment, "that's not what the other teachers make us do". So, I have to decide to argue with them or just let it go. It's a major pain in the backside.
What I have learned is that for the sake of keeping my classes focused on a task and for the sake of preserving my sanity I must pick my battles.
What does that mean? It means that I am not going to stress about the little things. For example, I don't look for kids who are chewing gum or eating candy, but if I see it they have to throw it away. At our school the students wear uniforms. I don't inspect each student but if I happen to notice it I make them fix it. If the problem persists and I happen to catch it several times then the proper referral is written.
What is disturbing is what I have heard from several other teachers in relation to picking their battles. Several teachers have mentioned that if certain students, who are normally disruptive in class, fall asleep then they let them sleep. I see the point that it's nice to not be disrupted, but How can a teacher, in good conscience, allow a student to sleep in class. It's a dis-service to that student. Students can not sleep in class. If they do, then as a teacher you are saying that it is OK to fail. If that's the case then maybe you don't need to pick a battle, you need to pick a new career.

"Its been one week since you looked at me"

Today is the first day of my second week of teaching. Let me back up a little and tell you about my first week. Overall everything went well. I think the students and I are starting to get to know each other. They seem to be more comfortable now. That pleases me. I only have one class that leans towards getting out of control. But they don't. For one, the class is small and secondly it's really just two kids that make each other act silly, but not what you would consider bad. They stop when I ask them to but in 5 or 10 minutes they pick it back up. The simple solution is to separate these two student. I plan to do that but first I want to talk to one of the students. He seems to feed off of the other. The problem is that while the other student can joke around and get all of his work done, this student can not. Even after one week I can see that his grade is beginning to suffer.
A second issue I am having is with students not coming prepared. More specifically I have one student that only brings a pencil to class, no book, no notebook. I think he may come from a home with little money and support. He never disrupts class, in fact he never talks. I gave him a binder with some loose leaf paper on Friday. I'm very curious to see if he brings it today.
The best thing about the week is that I was able to establish a relationship with the students. I think they like me, not that I need them to like me, but I think it makes for a more conducive learning environment. We took it easy last week in terms of content, this week I will turn it up a notch. I'll keep you posted to let you know how we progress.

PS. I'm a little disappointed that I don't have any crazy or funny stories to tell yet. I guess I should be glad in a way.

the title of this blog is a lyric form the song, "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies.

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

Professional Development?

School starts on Monday. Today, Friday,was professional development day. It was divided into 2 parts. The am session was the highlight. A guest speaker was brought in. It was actually enjoyable and some of the things he talked about actually sounded good. His big thing is the "twelve important words". These are the words that can be found on tests that students should know but often do not. Words like describe, evaluate, explain, compare. Words that are given in the directions or in the question that tell the students what they are supposed to do. The problem is that many students don't understand the words and therefore do not answer the question correctly. It seemed to be good stuff.

Then there was a lunch break. At this point I don't really know any of the other teachers so I thought it best to bring my lunch. Most other teachers, I assume, went out to get food. I heated my left over chinese food in the lounge and the chowed down while watching CNN's coverage of Britney Spears meltdown. Wow! my life is exciting!

The after lunch session was held in the library. We were required to do a final check on grades for report cards. Now, here's the thing. I was not there last semester but I was still made responsible for making sure that the grades that were turned in for the teacher i replaced(who I never even met), were the same as those in the gradebook. I didn't so much mind doing, but I couldn't stop thinking that here we are on January 1st, dealing with grades from last semester. Shouldn't this have been done by now?

After that, we broke up into groups to work on pacing charts for the semester. This was also good. I found out who else was teaching my subject. and now I know who my neighbors are this semester. I actually talked to and was introduced to several other teachers today. I suppose that all in all it was a good day. I started the day alone, knowing next to no one. And by the end of the day, as I was leaving the building, two people told me to have a good weekend and a veteran teacher who shares my subject told me to come by anytime to borrow resources. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I made friends today but at least a few people know my name now. I think my new plan is just to introduce myself to one person every day. For now I'm focusing on getting ready for students on monday. Buddies and friends can wait a week or two. Man, how many days is it to spring break?

How about an introduction?

I decided to start, or restart, this blog to document my first year experiences as a teacher and coach. I think it's only fitting that I set up the situation for you. I went back to college 3 1/2 years ago. I Graduated with a degree in secondary education back in December(2007). My student teaching went really well. I worked with a 21 year teaching veteran who is also a 21 year veteran coach. The best thing is that he let me make and learn from my mistakes. I believe that we learn best from our mistakes. Those experiences are more valuable than anything I learned from a textbook. Unfortunately, there were no jobs to be had at that school. But I did find a job teaching 9th grade world geography. I would rather be teaching history but since I did geography during student teaching I feel comfortable with the content. I can't wait to be on my own in my own classroom.

I am also going to be an assistant track & field coach. One of my goals is to be a head track coach and head cross country coach. I did not participate in these sports when I was in school but I fell in love with these sports a few years ago. I honestly do dream about being a coach, but it is important that you know that I am a teacher 1st. If I never coach it will be OK, but if I never teach then my life will be wasted.

I realize that it may sound harsh to say my life would be wasted. i should explain. I graduated high school back in 1993, I am now 33 years old. I went to college straight out of high school and proceeded to waste the next 6 years failing classes and racking upstudent loan debts. I left school for a few years and worked a bunch of different jobs. At each of these jobs I had the same thought, that I am supposed to be a teacher. I have known since I was in high school that I should be a teacher. I got married a few years ago and my wife and I deciced that this was the right time for me to get my degree. While I was working on that she was working on her masters. She is now in the early phases of working on her PhD. Our goal is to live life on our terms. That means I will be a teacher and she will be a professor. I have reached my goal, she's getting close too. I'm proud of her.

So, that brings us to now. I Got a job in the town just down the road from where I live. I don't know what is gonna happen now, but I'm sure it won't be boring.

I hope you'll come back and check in. Feel free to make comments.