Firstly, do any of you have Blogger in Draft as your Blogger homepage? The UI think they are trying out is SUPER different but really neat.
Secondly, kindly enter the HARRY POTTER GIVEAWAY I HAVE GOING ON RIGHT NOW!! Please.
My recent life has been incredibly overwhelming. Hence the graphic above.
I wanted to fill you guys in a little bit on what I'll be teaching at my new job. I was hired into the brand new Reading Intervention program that they are implementing into the junior high curriculum. Basically, the entire 7th and 8th grades will have their regular, 50 minute bells of Integrated Language Arts, daily, along with 75 minute blog of reading (and math) intervention daily. I will be teaching out of a single text book designed for this type of program, but will have the freedom to design my own lessons and teach in my own style. The class will be centered on the "5 Active Reading Strategies", which I didn't write down and can't remember, along with things like fluency, literacy, context clues, comprehension and vocabulary. This is probably extremely boring to you all. Haha.
ANYHOW. I have been buying up things to decorate my classroom, and pilfering used posters and things from friends. I was told that at the school I'll be teaching, about 90% of kids come to school unprepared every day, so I have been buying at least one pack of pencils and paper each time I go to the store. I am already up to about 2 hundred pencils and 6 hundred sheets of paper. I was also told that 5 hundred pencils will only last me the first quarter of school.
I never really fully grasped how time consuming and overwhelming just planning classroom management is. Seriously. I haven't even begun lesson planning.... sigh.
I am all moved into my new apartment, it is mostly decorated and we are finally internet capable! I plan on doing a tour (pictures, I was thinking... or maybe a vlog? I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for that yet...) soon. It's super cute and Kim and I are totally loving it.
That's all for now! Happy Sunday :)
I had no idea how much time and effort is put into planning a classroom.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is going to be a lengthy comment.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I am about to dive into this, too (student teaching starts in January). I've already got a huge stockpile of social studies related schtuff for my school library. I also have a handful of swag from Borders (since I work there AND they have educators weekends that I have been a part of for a while) that I would LOVE to send you if you can DM me your new address on Twitter. Believe me, I am moving soon and most of the stuff is more reading classroom centered than social studies -- posters, chapter books, all sorts of nifty things that I would love to pass on to you! Why haven't you DM'ed me your address yet!?!?!
That being said, I am so excited to start my classroom and so jealous of you right now. And the pencil thing is so true. Here in WV, they require teachers to keep pencils and paper on their desk in an easily accessible manner so every student can be prepared. It's actually law (a good, but expensive one). The classroom I observed last semester went through so many pencils! The school had a budget for it, but a small one that was exceeded in November. Then, the teachers had to buy their own.
A trick that I learned is the "ticket out the door method". Have you heard of it? It's when you ask each student something about the lesson that day or week and they answer and that is their ticket out the door. Many have found that it is a wonderful time to collect pencils, too. Since we know (at least where law requires it) that they are going to get a pencil in the next class, the teachers take up the pencils at the end of the period and the "ticket out the door" is a great way to get your pencils back through one on one interaction. It saves LOTS of money. Granted, pencils aren't hugely expensive, but you start to see how fast they go.
Paper, well, you don't see the disappearing issue nearly as much.
Anyway, give me your address!!!
Ruthy, it is very overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteMeg, I am JEALOUS and SO appreciative of you <3 <3
it sounds like some big and fun changes! congrats on all of that!!!
ReplyDeletelife spelled jen
and i would love to see some of your apartment pics as you go decorating : )
So happy for you and your new job! It's really quite sad how many kids continue to come to school completely unprepared and not just in the physical sense of pencils and paper. I taught at a really, really low income school and it was so sad to see some of the kinders coming in not ever having seen a book, let alone knowing their letters. They usually end up being perpetually behind. You are going to be doing great work with these kids! Behavior management is hard, but you can do it! Check out Love and Logic for teachers. http://www.loveandlogic.com They have great resources for teachers. I hope you are having fun setting everything up! :) Also, can't wait to see photos of the apartment set up!
ReplyDeleteWell at least the reading intervention programs aren't as tough as the math intervention programs.
ReplyDelete