Valentine's Day

I hate Valentine's Day. I didn't realize how much I hated it until today. The kids were terrible. They left candy wrappers around the school and spent more time worrying about their personal lives than usual. It was not what my students needed.

On the other hand, I had a session with a real-time behavior management coach today. I got to wear a cool earpiece and get some real-time advice. I then met with her afterwards and got some feedback.

First of all, my classroom isn't terrible. I'm not the worst first-year teacher ever. My classroom is not dangerous. Kids aren't doing really bad things. They stay in their seats. They react when I talk. There is the possibility of improvement.

I was given a couple of pieces of advice, things to implement immediately. I need to redesign my beginning-of-class plan. My current one takes too long and doesn't get the kids settled. I'm going to cut my 2-minute timer down to a 1-minute timer and work on passing out papers more quickly. I am also going to (hopefully) turn the Do Now into 2 minutes of silent work time. My other task is to script, on post-its, my expectations for each part of my lessons. I know these things will help. I definitely need to work on clearer expectations, and post-its make everything better (remind me what to say and when to say it).

I had a meeting at my firehouse last night, and the drive home was a comedy of errors. I got on I-95 in the wrong direction, and didn't realize it until I saw a sign that said "Last exit before George Washington Bridge". Oy. I lost 30 minutes there. On the CT end, I went the wrong way once I got off the highway (in my defense, I usually come from the North on CT-15), at which point my gas light went on. I got home too late, and with a tank full of gas.

Now I will run some errands and then drag myself to the gym. If I say it, it's more likely to happen. I EXPECT myself to pick up dry cleaning, stop at the bank, and go to the gym. If I don't do that, I'll have to call my parents and tell them I didn't cooperate.