Rosh Hashanah

Great principal interaction #5: My IL is away for the week (covering for another principal on paternity leave), so I had my weekly planning meeting with the principal. I was able to convey my enthusiasm and my togetherness, and she had wonderful things to say. We shared enthusiasm over geology, and I think I showed her that I can keep up with my work even after leaving early yesterday for Rosh Hashanah. She suggested that I find more opportunities for my students to read science nonfiction. I love having students read, because it makes my job easier, and I love encouraging science literacy. I'll have to get on that. The meeting went well, and she observed my class immediately following.

I was nervous about the observation, but the class went pretty well. Of course, when she walks in the room, the kids are on their best behavior. I had feedback in my inbox by the time I sat down right after class. I was complimented on some great participation (many times, 100%!) and clear directions, but I need to improve my scanning. That is, when I tell the students to track the speaker, I have to make sure they are doing that. I have to NOT track the speaker. It's hard, because I want to listen carefully and respectfully to the student answering my question, but I need to be scanning for compliance. That'll be my next task.

Today I distributed progress reports to all my students, which consisted of a list of all grades so far for each student, signatures required. Surprisingly, I only received one concerned-parent phone call. It went well. I hate parent contacts, but I'm good at them, usually. This one was pretty easy. She was concerned that her student, who has an 80% average, had failed several exit tickets. I explained to her that exit tickets are only a small part of the quarter grade, and that she was showing an upward trend (her last three assignments were 80%, 100%, and 100%). And then the parent thank yous always makes it feel good.

I went home for Rosh Hashanah, and it was nice. There was a lot of food and I always love spending time with family and friends. I took a bunch of leftovers to school today, which helped me make even more friends.

Everything is still good. (Except for my NJ certification, that's kind of a frustrating jumble of phone calls and voicemail.) I'm so happy that I can work so hard on improvement every day, rather than worrying about damage control. I'm (mostly) keeping up with my planning and grading. My two goals for this week are to SCAN, not track the speaker, and to dig up more articles for the students to read.