Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Today started like any normal Wednesday. I arrived to school early and set up my laptop in the teacher's area where we eat lunch. Since I do not have my own classroom, this is my make-shift work space. Then at 8 o'clock (Period 2), we had 9th grade house collaboration. This is where the 9th grade teachers meet twice a week. Our main topic on the agenda was parent-teacher conferences. We just talked about scheduling really. Nothing too exciting goes on in collaboration. It does help, however, to be in constant communication with your students' other teachers. We can talk about what's going on in other classes and keep things consistent among our students. Our next trip is to the San Diego Zoo. We are taking the entire 9th grade class; about 235 students. It's on October 27. I can't wait.
Period 4 and 6 I have prep. We are on a block schedule, so odd periods are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and even periods are on Wednesdays and Fridays. 8 periods total, 85 minutes each. On Mondays every period meets for 35 minutes each. Anyways, I prepped for nearly 3 hours. Needless to say, I was not prepping for the entire time. In fact, I used part of the time to run to Stater Bros. to pick up a big bag of candy for a last minute idea.
In period 8, we played Syllabus Jeopardy. We did this after our activity on Population density of course. Syllabus Jeopardy actually went pretty well. The candy was the prize for the winners. I used this template to review my syllabus. It's important to review the syllabus every once in awhile or when the situation warrants it. In this case, we are going into a new unit on Tuesday and I wanted to start fresh.
What I learned today was that if the situation warrants it, it's okay to review the syllabus. They all know it, but they need to understand that you are serious about your classroom rules and expectations, policies and procedures, homework policy and everything else. It's like another teacher told me today, it helps us as teachers and it shows the students that you mean business. He also said that they are not shit-heads, but so-and-so-heads.