Another week almost at an end. Other than the annoying antics of a few students (one of my students put Funtac in another girl's hair) my week has been okay. I was anything but productive, but it still was an okay week. I have a better group this year (not to mention a smaller group -- so far). The week started on Monday with AP1 asking for the report card of a student of mine from last (school) year. I actually had it. I was sure I'd thrown it away, but when I came home, I found it.

For most of the week, I have been procrastinating with getting my classroom together, and completing my lesson plans. At first my plan was to complete my lesson plans for the two weeks, but one thing or another stopped me. Each day this weekend, I've felt the need to stay at school until about 6pm (when the custodians use the fire drill bell as a way of saying get out). By the time, I get home, I am so exhausted, that I ended up falling asleep soon after arriving. I've been dragging 20 or 30 pounds of textbooks back and forth for school to home, in and out of public transit, only to have them sit at the door untouched, only to have to drag them back the next day.

One of the positives this week, is that I've managed to catch the earlier train, so I've been arriving at school about 7:15am each morning. I is nice to be able to have a few minutes to get mentally (and physically) ready for the day. Before this week, I was arriving about 5 minutes before the start of school, just time to run in the building, dropping off my jacket and cart, then sweating as I go to pick up my students. Now, I feel a bit more relax arriving when it is nice and quiet.

Another positive is that I've started buying "Healthy Choice" frozen meals. When the school has something like grilled cheese sandwiches, I like having the Healthy Choice alternative. The only downside is the extremely small portions.

Today, my refurbished laptop arrived, it looks very nice for a secondhand computer. It has DVD and wireless capability. The cost was $402 (including the teacher's discount). My plan is to have the computer in school so that I can update the students grades and write up reports in class. To often, I've told myself that I will take the work home, only to have it sit in untouched piles. I do have computers in my classroom, but the students get to them, and I have not really felt comfortable using the student computers. I like having my own space, that is off-limits to the kids. Another benefit (I almost didn't think about at the time) was being able to play DVDs on my computer. I think I might be able to borrow the computer lab's projector that will allow me to have a movie house showing in my room. If I do show DVD, it will only be on the 2nd or last day of school.

Tomorrow is Friday, early dismissal (2:20). Unfortunately, I won't be leaving early. I will really try to buckle down and get some organization done. I need to get my classroom computers connected. At my school, the classroom teachers are the ones responsible for disconnecting the computers for summer storage, and reconnecting them. Actually, the classroom teachers are also responsible for teaching computer lessons in the computer lab with the computer teacher busy doing something. Last year, I got annoyed with making lesson plans for myself, and them making computer lessons with my limited computer knowledge. Last year, the computer teacher closed the computer lab about 2 weeks before the end of school, that was also highly annoying.

Anyway, tomorrow, I will really try to get organized. Objectives:

1. Connect classroom computers
2. Clean up my teacher's area and put my teaching books and materials in order

For the weekend, I want my lesson plans for the week completed. I want next week for planning for the month of October. I also need to return to Brooklyn to the teacher's supply store to buy a few (I hope) art supplies. I want my students to do an art project for the hall bulletin board.

Well, I better go, it would be nice to get in bed once this week, rather than falling asleep from exhaustion.

Post Date - Thursday, September 20, 2007 9:49pm