First Full Day

Today was my first full day at my new school. I pretty much had to hit the ground running. I was forewarned that I had to be stern with my students and let them know that I am not there to be their friend.

I am fortunate in that I only have approximately 90 students. My two Geometry classes are blocks, so I have them for two periods each. Today, I introduced my myself, then we went over a group quiz the students took on Thursday. They are preparing for a test tomorrow. On Wednesday, we start a new unit.

Then I have an Algebra readiness class. This class has 36 students, but I think it was my better class today. I introduced myself and immediately started a lesson on solving one-step equations using the addition and subtracting properties of equality. I would have liked to play a fun name-game, but according to the pacing guide, the students were already one day behind. I think we caught up today though. Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be going over multiplication and division properties of equality. Friday, we will tie them all together and solve two-step equations.

During my prep and after school, I set up my room some more. I unpacked some items I have and rearranged my desk. My room is still bland, but hopefully over time I will collect some posters and student work to post on the walls. I have attached some photos of my room before I rearranged my desk.

Tomorrow, I'm going in early to staple 50 tests since the copier was out of staples. :/

It's Official!

Monday is my first official day of work. However, I went in today for an orientation. I am teaching two block of Geometry and one block of Algebra support. All 9th graders. After the orientation, I went to observe my last block. [I'm not going to talk about the orientation. It's too boring.]

When I walked in, the students were [supposed to be] working on a group quiz. The seats are already arranged in groups of five. The 27 students were set up in groups of 4 (one of them three). For my standards, these students were way too rowdy. There has been a substitute teacher for the past month and she has been at the school for a year and a half. However, her classroom management has not been established. On Monday, she will still be there to ease the transition, but I asked her to simply introduce me so the students are not too shocked. I plan to take over right away by giving the students a little background about myself and going over the classroom rules and expectations. It doesn't hurt to review those once in awhile.

The whole time I spent helping students with their group quizzes. In fact, I brought them home to grade! Luckily, I only have to grade one quiz from each group.

After school, two students stayed because they had a conflict to resolve. One student came forward to complain about the other student and how he is a distraction to him. He wanted him moved to another group. It was funny to listen to the student tell the sub and me that the other student doesn't know when it appropriate to talk and when it is time to shut up. I don't think I have ever seen such a cordial argument from two 9th graders before. The sub suggested that the student who brought forward the complaint be moved. I suggested that they try it one (or two) more days since they have a test on Tuesday. I figure since I will take over on Monday, things might be a little different. Plus, I think Wednesday would be a good day to make a new seating chart since they have been in the same seats for a month and they start a new unit on that day. Afterward, the sub told me that the complainant cannot be seated with just anyone. There is one group of students that mistreat him and one student copies off of him. This shouldn't be too hard to deal with though.

After that, I brought in some materials I had. On Monday, I'll bring in my books and start setting up my classroom. Maybe I'll take some pictures and post them up too!

Goal for this weekend: Grade quizzes, lesson plan for Monday (maybe the week), and make printouts of rules and expectations to post on wall.