First day back in the classroom. Today was a cleaning day. When I first stepped into the classroom, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. It has been about 3 or 4 years since I had my own classroom. I did not know where to start. I received nothing in the way of a list of things to do to get ready for the school year.

First informal assessment of what was in the room by grouping items and materials.
By myself, I moved (several times) students desks and class furniture into different configurations. What goes into planning furniture layouts; the schools teaching philosophy, but more importantly student population. What was on my mind for third graders? Runners. Hiders. Crawlers. Throwers. It was very difficult to arrange a room when I did not know how many students I would have.

Once I had a basic idea of the room’s layout, I emptied all closets and cabinets. I felt that it was very important for me to get comfortable with the room that I would be using for 10 months. couple of hours into the day, one of the assistant principals called all available men to help move boxes and things out of hall storage closet because the electrician could not reach the electrical box. It took about 6 of us about 45 minutes to clear out just a pathway to the electrical box.

Since I had so much to do, I didn’t eat lunch. Around 4pm, I went shopping for classroom materials. Since I was in the neighborhood, I return to school so that I would not have to carry the materials to my shoebox in the Bronx, only to have to return the next day.

I stopped by foster father’s place to pick up my mail. I received a letter from the NYS board of Ed saying that they will mail me my teaching certificate in 2 or 3 weeks.
I ate dinner at a local restaurant. I bought two plastic 4-shelve unit.
I walked to 125th street office supply store.
Returned to my shoebox. I was too tired to do any rowing.
I ate a can of sardines and a glass of green tea.

Post Date - Saturday, September 2, 2006 11:26pm