School Venting

Today was the first day of teacher pre-planning week. It was full of highs and lows...

Low: We were not given a schedule/agenda for the week until this morning. Despite being scheduled to work daily from 8-3 this week, we actually have very little "classroom time" (meaning time to prepare our classrooms and create lesson plans.) It is frustrating...many teachers moved classrooms and have a TON to do to be "ready."

High: For the first time I was one of "those" teachers. The ones who have a child accompanying them to school. The previous school years Emma has attended private pre-school/daycare, and thus when I went back to work at the end of summer, she returned to school too. This year, since she'll be in public school and on the same school schedule as I am, she went to pre-planning with me today. She was SOOOO well behaved! We had a 2 1/2 hour faculty meeting, during which Emma played quietly and colored in the back of the room. There was another little girl there who Em was able to play with a bit, and they behaved together...whew! After the faculty meeting and some training sessions, Emma was able to play and do "arts and crafts" in my classroom while I did some classroom work. I can't wait until she's older and I can put her to work with classroom preparations... ;)

Low: The guy who had my classroom last year (and resigned last May) left a TON of crap. File cabinet drawers full of old worksheets. Storage cupboards full of stuff. Desk drawers full of junk. I had to spend a lot of time moving his crap to the trash pile in the hallway in order to have room to unpack my stuff. After cleaning and scrubbing first, of course! Argh.

High: I will still have 7th period (last period) planning this year. Sweet! I love it!

Low: I am the only person in my department with THREE lesson plan preparations...meaning I will be teaching 3 different courses. Two people in my department have one prep. One person has two preps. Why can't the schedule gurus spread the load a bit? Seriously.

High: The new hire in my department was the department chair at her previous school. I think she will be very helpful and will share the load with me a lot more than the department guy who left at the end of last year. We've already been idea swapping...I am glad to finally have a collaborator like I did at my previous school.

Low: Our reading, math, and science FCAT scores dropped school-wide.

High: We still scored high enough to be considered an "A" school.

High: After 2 years, I finally have "friends" not just "co-workers at school. It makes a huge difference!

High: Though irritated about my multiple lesson preps, I am still excited to work with the Sys.tem 44 program for the first time this year. This is a S.cholastic program that was new to my county last year and correlates with the Read180 program I've been teaching for 4 years (and love!)

High: Though disgruntled about my multiple lesson preps, I am excited that I will have 6th, 7th, and 8th graders this year. (Two classes of 6th, and one 7th/8th mixed class.) I'm glad not to lose complete contact with 8 graders.

2010-11 school year....bring it on!