THE First Day of School

It came and has gone and my first true day of school as a full-time teacher seems to have been a success. Yesterday was technically the first day but was the freshman only. The class of 2013. I tried to help a few of them get around the hallways but truth be told, I was almost as lost as they were. Fortunately, there were plenty of teachers and admins in the hallway to lead the way and I directed several of the young ones their way to point with fingers, pens, pencils and hands full of papers.

I did get to meet the entire class. Ms. Detrick and I as class 2013 co-sponsors gave a brief introduction to the upcoming Homecoming project. We then settled into our impromptu table in the cafeteria to convince the freshman to sign up and assist in the float building, fundraising and general activity involved. Afterall, if they don't start now they will NOT have a very exciting Jr. Prom which they get to organize. Our first group sat in the tables farthest from the clubs and organizations offering information so with the 2nd round, we walked the tables and encouraged about 3 pages of students to sign up. I ducked out early to lead an info session on the student handbook (I was assigned a spot) and Ms. D did a great job acquiring a bunch of willing hands.

Today the entire student body was present, about 1200 students in all. My overall tactic was to discuss the syllabus and then have a game where I could learn a little about my students and they could learn about each other. I brought copies of the Bingo game we used in Hinsdale. It is a blank "board" that students can fill in with topics wherever they liked, creating their own board. I listed several topics on the board such as read a book this summer, saw a movie, has a job, will go to a football game, etc. I gave out Smarties to use as pieces to mark their boards. Overall it went pretty well. It would have gone a lot better if I'd had an overhead or LCD to project my "topics" list. As it was, I used a bunch of time writing things on the board which is not ideal but it worked. 

I have about 25 students in my Coop 1 class, 30 in Business Law and 7 in Coop 2. Quite the disparity but I think in the end it will work. I'll differentiate (an education buzz word) instruction to suit the size of the classes and go from there. It's me and the chalk for a while. Hopefully I at least get an overhead projector for biz law. I've already created a bunch of power points which are fairly useless in my present situation. If you don't know, I'm in 4 different rooms for 4 different classes and on 3 different floors. I think Urbana H.S. is a fantastic place but I am surprised at how lacking in technology the school is compared to the places I've taught. 

It was great to walk out of the building today with the Associate Principal asking how my day went. Hopefully I was tough enough and direct enough to get everyone to follow the rules, do the work and succeed. It was a good first day. I've got some frustrations I need to work out such as the fact that my predecessor left only assessments and textbooks behind with no demonstration of the lessons he did. He did tell me his philosophy was to just "keep the students busy" which I don't agree with. I want them to learn and connect. For now, I am going to assume such frustrations are all "first year teacher" issues and bumps that come with working in a new environment.

I'll trade the business suit for school colors tomorrow (I'm thinking black suit jacket with white t-shirt and orange neck scarf with dark jeans) for school spirit day. We're hoping to have a successful football team this year and I'm aiming to go to the game and support my students and fellow new Urbana teacher, Coach Watson. Go Tigers! It's almost TGIF....

KB