The First Week

The past four days have been a complete blur.

Day 1: No keys to anything in the school. Reviewing the syllabus and expectations with students. Planning lessons.
Day 2: Diagnostic assessment. Not much activity during the lesson for me, but damn a lot of grading.
Day 3: Igniting (not burning) a student's money with an acetone / water mix leading into a discussion about observation v. inference. They loved it.
Day 4: A slide show with pictures of people who look like scientists but aren't, and vice versa. Students learned that anyone, regardless of appearance can be a scientist.

I knew there would be a lot of papers. Somehow the true gravity of that fact did not set in until I carried them around with me. I'm already working on ways to minimize that. I also purchased a projector on eBay and used it in the slide show on Friday. Allowing them to voice their input during the slide show was great fun. They get so involved and everyone was engaged. It seems like my students are pretty visual... and talkative.

I'm somewhat dreading calling all their parents. It's a ton of students so phone calls will take quite some time. I think I should spread it over one week actually. These are the initial calls as an introduction. Hopefully they will deter students from misbehaving in the future.

I have my DOE email address setup, but I'm still trying to figure out how to route it to my iPhone. I think it may require some less than legitimate configuration.

Overall, this week has been quite stressful and required a ton of work. However, when thing are running smoothly, I love it. I know it's only the first week, but I think I've chosen the right profession.

First Day (w/o students)

I should be in bed asleep right now.

However, when I got home today, I made two turkey sandwiches, ate them and got in bed by 6PM. I woke up at 11, still tired, but I figured I'd answer a few emails, input some scheduling things into my calendar and organize things a bit.

The first day involved:
- Hearing various authority figures speak
- Hearing the phrase, "I'm sure you all know this already..." (I didn't)
- Meeting other science teachers
- Meeting my new AP
- Being overwhelmed and inundated with copious information
- Perpetually having a deer-in-the-headlights look in my eyes
- Making an exponentially growing to-do list
- Finally discovering my file number (Dept. of Ed. ID #)
- Waiting on hold for DOE IT to give me an email address, to no avail
- A 1 on 1 Q&A with my new AP, asking her questions to which she didn't know the answers because she's only been there for four days
- Failing to find out how to connect to the school's wireless network
- Failing to acquire keys to my classroom
- Being disappointed that I have not been assigned to a science classroom (sans sink, lab bench, white board - only chalk)
- Being delighted that I have a well-spaced schedule the begins at just before 9AM and ends around 3:30
- Staying well past my obligated time to organize my thoughts and reduce my anxiety
- Realizing what exactly I have to do for next week
- Realizing I do not have a mailbox to receive essential correspondences
- Being overall pleased with my school, in light of others' horror stories
- Redundant professional development that used materials identical to those in NYCTF training

I think that's a conservative synopsis of today's events. Tomorrow should be a whole new barrel of fun. I can only imagine how much the level of fun increases when students arrive. As you can tell, I'm being sarcastic, not because I don't like what I'm doing, but just because it's quite overwhelming right now. I'm sure the dust will settle in a few weeks and I will feel like I have a level head, but right now, everything is kind of a circus. Goodnight.