 |
| https://unsplash.com/photos/fVUl6kzIvLg?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText |
Wednesday, September 3
Dear Diary,
I
was exhausted the entire day. After all the nonsense yesterday, I had trouble
settling down enough to sleep last night.
When I finally did doze off, it was
time to get up.
Typical.
I
spent part of the morning in my classroom scheduling parent conferences and the
afternoon in meetings with the staff at Adams Elementary.
Yes, I finally got my
class list, but as per usual, there's a slight snag.
Only 18 out of 30 students
were listed, which delays scheduling parents and labeling cubbies, journals,
folders, etc. I hope that I'll have a full list by the end of the week.
Mrs.
Staltz said that's highly unlikely. We may have most of our students registered
by then, but it may take a few weeks to get a full class.
After
thinking about it I realized beginning with a partial class might actually be a
good thing. A small class size is always best, especially with the little ones.
I'll be able to teach this smaller group of students the class rules without an
abundance of distractions, and they in turn can help me teach the new arrivals.
I
also met one of my classroom aides this morning. Her name is Miss Mary, and she
and another woman named Miss Betty, will alternate their time in my classroom
on a bi-weekly basis, for an hour-and-a-half each day.
45 minutes in the
morning during the phonics block and another 45 minutes in the afternoon. I
hope to do the Learning Centers during their afternoon slot. It's much easier
to monitor centers with two adults in the room.
Miss
Mary is kind and open to new things. She has been a Kindergarten aide for
fifteen years. That is awesome.
She thinks the Learning Centers are a great
idea and never understood why they took play out of Kindergarten in the first
place.
She seems very knowledgeable about how a Kindergarten class should run.
I will definitely utilize her knowledge, especially since I don't think I'll be
receiving much support from my grade partner.
Mrs. Staltz told me to ask her
for help whenever I needed it, but I get the feeling she doesn't want to be
bothered.
When
I asked her for a copy of the information I missed yesterday at the phonics
training, she made me one without complaint, but I it seemed that she just wanted
to be left alone.
She kept saying she had a thousand things to do before our
meetings started.
In spite of her protestations, I also asked her for the email
address for the woman in charge of sending out emails to the Kindergarten
teachers.
She was nice enough to give me that, too.
I
spent the remainder of the day in meetings.
During the first session, Mrs.
Bernard welcomed us to a new school year and spoke about the promise of a fresh
start for our students.
She explained her arrival and dismissal expectations
for the year, as well as deadlines for lesson plans, lunch schedules and
routines, and other general housekeeping information.
The second session was
about the needs of Second Language Learners and students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).
We also spent time signing up for school committees and had our lunch break.
At
the end of the day, I was given a few reams of copy paper with the promise of
more to come. Apparently, the Phonics program requires a lot of
worksheets to be completed by the students.
I think that's ridiculous. Where's
the fun in doing gobs of worksheets in Kindergarten? Quality over quantity, I
say.
Mrs. Staltz got a larger amount of copy paper than I. I learned shortly
after why this was so.
As the grade group leader, she is in charge of deciding
what homework the Kindergartners receive each week as well as making the appropriate
copies.
I was also informed that we will alternate doing a math and literacy
lesson plan each week, according to a format designed by her, and approved of
by Mrs. Bernard; that I am responsible for purchasing sand and containers for
the Phonics program; and that I must focus on journals for my Teacher
Improvement Plan (TIP) this year.
I
told Mrs. Staltz I thought that I could choose what I wanted to work on for my
TIP.
I was hoping to work on a behavior program I had learned about while I was
in Head Start. It's supposed to be very beneficial in helping students make
good decisions.
Mrs. Staltz said I could do whatever I wanted but Mrs. Bernard
preferred that Kindergarten and First Grade focus on journals.
Since everyone
else has agreed to journals, I consented to do it also. I don't want to draw
negative attention to myself my first year here.
