60 hours to go

Wow. A lot is happening these days. In 60 hours--less than that, more like 56--I will have my kids in the classroom and will be attempting to show them that I'm not a pushover. Not smiling the first day is what everyone at my school recommends--I plan to follow such advice. I'm told they're pretty good kids, might have some English problems, but good kids.

So I haven't blogged on here since I started at my school. Guess I should probably talk about how that's going. I know that I promised to talk about orientation but that seems less relevant the more time goes by. Point being that most of the time wasn't necessary. We had district training the week after that, which made me wish for TFA again. The first day of district training was at a hotel where there wasn't nearly enough parking--I parked in a section of the lot full of broken boards, gravel and (apparently) rusty nails. Luckily my tires survived it. The rest of the week wasn't all that much better organized, and whatever was organized, we already mostly knew.

Started school last Thursday (the 3rd). I like my principal, he's new (and increasingly tired as school draws nearer), and the staff is pretty cool, though gossip is big here. I try to steer clear of that as much as possible. I will definitely be the guy who is not in the teacher's lounge at all. We have some pretty good resources at our school and everyone is very cooperative if you need something, although I have not received all that much in terms of concrete, hands-on things. I have a serious need for storage bins for supplies (and supplies, too). Some schools took their new teachers to go on a shopping spree at stores... ours didn't, although I get the idea that if I am going to order things, I should order them now. So once our principal's secretary gets back from vacation next Wednesday, I'll submit an order.

The school is fairly well equipped. I have a TV that I can use to play DVDs off the computer (the kids have 5 computers in my room and I have a new computer too--attendance and grading will be all computerized). That means I can do Powerpoint, to my delight, although I have to be careful since the TV isn't as big as a projector would be. However, as for materials, as I said I am short. I think the teacher who preceded me took a lot of stuff... I barely have any books or manipulatives.

The worst part of the whole thing is that my room has mold, which we found when we headed into it. The teacher next door was the first to notice it. The plan was to bump me to another building (where the 3rd graders are) but then they decided that they'd get it fixed in time and I could stay in my room with the 4/5 classes. Okay, but it's still not done... the boards are clean, but the furniture needs to be cleaned badly. So I haven't done anything in the room... I have stacks of things scattered around the other room, and I've been trying to prep posters and other things to put up. I've bought a world map, and a globe tonight, and I'm trying to get all the stuff I need together (though I'm pretty disorganized at this point to be honest).

The staff, as I said, is very nice and people offer to help frequently. My mentor has given me a lot of supplies that he didn't need (the best was the CD set of National Geographic magazine from 1880 to 2000!). Hopefully I will be able to count on some help to set up. The computer system (run by the district) has been annoying, though, and I didn't get a class list until today (well, I still don't really have the list, just the kids' ID cards). I'll have 20 kids, a couple of whom were retained, I believe, but most of whom were in the same class last year (I'm the only teacher with my specific position, and so is the teacher below me in the vertical alignment).

The thing I need the most is books. If you have some of your old childhood books or know people who do, please contact me--you know how if you're reading this blog--and talk to me about getting them down here. I'll take care of the costs.

I probably won't be on here again for a few days at least, so wish me luck with the kids on Monday... I need to finalize my lesson plans for them for Monday and Tuesday so that I can "interalize," as they say. And it's late out here, and I need sleep someday... so hasta entonces...