Day 1 #3

This was my third first day of school as a teacher, and my 21st first day of school as a human being. This poster represents how I feel today:

I've never run 18 miles, but I am totally relating to the feeling of being so far into something that everything is fuzzy and sweet and mashed potatoes.

I love this job. If there's one thing I got from today, it's that I'm good at this. My class was unrecognizable compared to last year. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good.

I love my new kids. I only know their first day trying-to-impress behavior, but I think I'm going to love them. I still miss the old kids, though. I took every opportunity to watch the new 8th graders, just because I miss them.

My classes were smooth. There were no major issues. The tracking was 100% most of the time. 100% of students took all their notes. In the last 20 minutes of the day, the principal came to observe (yay, end of day observation). I didn't think it was perfect, but I got awesome feedback. I was complimented on my CFUs (checks for understanding), which was an area for improvement last year. My one action step was:

  I love your push for voice – I think I’m going to use it in Circle tomorrow – give dollars for Leadership to reinforce the behavior. 

If that's the biggest thing I need to fix (giving more dollars), I think I'm doing okay.

I accomplished some personal goals, too. I made two positive parent phone calls today. I also returned all student phone calls (5 calls from 3 different students asking whether they are allowed to use highlighter on their homework reading. I <3 North Star). I spoke to 7 different students at lunch (one is a cheerleader, one is a dancer, one went to Six Flags this summer, 2 play basketball, and 2 play football).

There was one dark spot in the day. We have a new student. He reads at about a 2nd grade level and has tics that make him unable to sit in a classroom. I hope we can help him out, although it doesn't look like it right now. The worst part, though, is that when he sat with his class at lunch, a few boys were laughing at him. I had a serious teacher talk with the leader of the bullies. The good part is that later in the day, when the new boy joined the class in English, and others students started snickering, the former-bully-leader was silent. Still, I hope we can help this child.

I love seating charts. They help me learn names by locations, since I certainly can't do faces. I was about 30% by the end of each class, and maybe 10% on the sidewalk. Not bad to start. I'll give myself a month for 100%.

Like I said, it's the excited, proud brain fuzz that occurs 18 miles into the run. I know I'm not perfect, and that there will be things to work on. According to the principal, "We just finished the easiest day of the year. Start getting ready for days 2 through 195." I'm on it.