hark

the D.O.E. angels sing

"Thank you for your application to teach in New York City. We are pleased to inform you that upon reviewing your application, you are eligible to teach in our public schools. Congratulations!"

I believe all is well now in terms of my being able to teach here...

In other news, I am very lucky to be teaching at my school. We have a meeting structure specifically where I meet with my other math teachers. Thanks to talking to them, I now have an idea of how I'm going to have a homework plan, and what I am going to do about the hopes and dreams components I have planned for next week. The 8th grade math teacher suggested I have the girls create their hopes and dreams, but, instead of having my 7th graders create the rules, I have some explicitly in place for them. In turn, they figure out how their hopes and dreams relate to my rules.

of course...Now I need to figure out my rules, but I think I will follow the mantra of keeping it simple, but explicit.

Already, I am seeing the signs of 7th grade girldom: ipods, lip gloss, gum, lotion, sparkly things, etc....none of which I want in my classroom. Any ideas on a good way to make sure they don't bring these into my class?

Today went well for the most part. Study hall was somewhat of an issue, where many more girls showed up than I had a list for. Understandably, things will be somewhat confusing for the first week or two, but I'm hoping I can organize myself so that I can help my students get where they need to go. So far, I have kind of not done so well on that front.

I've been posting reminders and schedules for myself on the wall, replete with color coding. This has helped to some degree.

On a more positive note, I am doing a better job with names. I'll say that I have about 60 to 70 % of each class' names down, which is pretty good considering I am just not that good at it.

I think the handshake before entering my class has really helped out in this front.

What else..what else...Me Bags went well today, although I think when I do it again on Monday, I want to make it a lot clearer about what I expect when a girl is presenting her Me Bag. A rubric might be a good idea as well, for both the class and the presenter. (all of these ideas are just popping into my head right now of course)

There was a common thread of girls bringing in their childhood stuffed animals, pictures of family and friends, perfume that they like, etc.

There were some issues with girls not listening and being rude when a presenter was up there. I had a student share some really beautiful pictures that she had drawn about people in her life that had passed away. I thanked her for being brave, and had the class give her a round of applause. Of course, someone laughed sarcastically as soon as she was done, which was really not okay.

Ah...middle school. the fun never ends.

Hope everyone survived their first week okay,

Sara