On the last day of teacher prep day(the day before the students arrive [about 2:55pm]) a group of (three) student teachers came to my classroom (in the midst of me trying to get my room together). They came to introduce themselves and let me know that one of them would be working with me. I was already stressed out trying to get my room ready, not have my lesson plans, so that wasn't good news. I called my principal to beg out of "the help". Luckily, she saw the positive of having the extra help. After the first day, I realize it might be a good idea to have the extra help.
Oh, luckily, my class size has shrunk just a bit. Now, my register is 27 students. Yes, it is still a big class, but (for me) 28 is the magic number between large and doable and overcrowded and stress inducing just thinking about the number. AND, having the student teacher for half the school year will be nice (I think). I've had college students who had course-work to do. It has been a toss-up (some are better than others). This one seems to be very eager. She was pleasant and professional. On the first day, she arrived at 7:30am ready to help.
The first day I was stressed for the usual reasons, but mainly starting the new year with new students. The day before, I was at the school until about 9PM trying to get the classroom ready. The first day went very smoothly (even for my lack of preparation). Due to the holidays that were coming the following day, about 1/3 of my students didn't show up. Here in NYC, the following two days are holidays, so no school. When the day finished I wanted to spend one hour for classroom prep work, and one hour for paperwork, but I was soo tired, I didn't really do much of anything of substance. However with that said, I was very happy that I resisted the old habit of loading up my shopping cart with teaching materials with the promise of spending part of the weekend planning. This time, I took only a couple of books and materials (just enough to plan for the coming week). No as of this moment, I haven't touched that bag. I pretty much slept away yesterday and today.
Diet and Exercising
At the moment, the plan is to start on Monday. My bike is still in the middle of the living room (unused). I also need to clean my apartment, it is started to get dirty again. Luckily, not even close to the way it was, but if I don't start with a cleaning routine, it is going to get that bad again.
5 comments:
Wow. Your district starts late. We've just finished our 3rd week of school.
Where I teach, 27 students is considered unbelievably tiny for a class. You're lucky to have a nice, small group. I hope there are no trouble makers.
Good luck.
Hello Paperback. Thank you for the best wishes. I'm not sure my district starts late. I think yours just starts early. Are you sure 27 is considered small for elementary in Utah. I'm not sure, but I think the upper grades have the big class sizes (even here in NYC). I don't know for sure, but I think it is easier to handle 27 students in the upper grades than at the elementary level. Remember, your students move in and out of your room every period. Try keeping the same ones ALL DAY!!!
As for trouble-makers, I'm sure when the 1/3 arrive on Monday, I'll have more. However, I already know I have one (possibly two definites). On the first day, I already had to change one student's seat, twice (execessive talking, noise making, note passing, possible theft of another student's paper). Yep, all on the first day. Strangely enough, that isn't surprising. One, I've been teaching for a few years (I've had worse). Two, I know this student from incidences where his teacher had to send him to me for being too disruptive in her class. The difficult read will be "Little T" (not his real name or initial), sitting next to the above student, I knew in an instant those two would be handfuls, but when I moved him to a different table, he became much better instantly (not to mention he was able to produce much more at the new table).
Well, the average kindergarten class in Utah is about 25, so 27 is a small class in grade school here.
I forget: what grade do you teach, anyway?
Oh, I KNOW you guys have it worse with kids that stay all day long. Your prep is FAR worse than ours -- no matter how many preps we have, yours are still worse. The only thing that we have worse than you is hormones and the resulting behavior insanity.
All I mean is that Utah has had the highest number of students per adult in classes for DECADES. Our state legislators are proud of this; they consider it "efficient."
In junior high in Utah, 35 is normal, 45 is large (for an academic class), and 50 is not unheard of. (The social studies teacher on our team had 48 in her 5th period class until last Wednesday. The 7th grade art teacher has one class with 36 boys and 6 girls in it. When I taught Spanish, I often had 45 kids per class. The German class had 52, We've also had PE classes with 80 kids in them.)
Wow, those are large numbers. Yep, Utah has more. Congratulations! This is one area I don't mind losing. Yes, elementary school teachers lose out in the prep dept. I recently discovered that middle school teachers here in NYC are suppose to have two preps per day. At the elementary level, teachers only get one (45 min.) per day. If you factor in escorting students to and from the specials, or the wait time for the prep teacher to arrive, our preps are about 40min. (or sometimes 35min.). Throw in a bathroom break (the only time I can go [also during lunch]), preps don't add up to much.
Paperback's got nothing on me--we just finished our FIFTH week of school. Can't imagine. I'm pretty much used to my class and they know my weekly routines by now.
Anyway, this is the first year that I think I would be comfortable with a student teacher. Of course, I don't have one, but still.
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