It Begins...

One day down, 179 to go.  That's right, on Friday, we had our first student day at school.  I must say, before the day started, I felt very prepared, but as the day went on, I realized that this year was going to be very different from last year.  I said in my last post that I loved my last job, and the only reason I left was because my new job was at the school I went to, and the drive is way better!  However, I didn't realize until Friday how spoiled I had gotten at my old school.

Last year, there were two 7th grade English teachers.  We each had half the kids, and we had them for two periods a day.  That means I only had three groups of students all day, and my largest class was 22.  It was amazing.  Now, at my new school, I am the only 7th grade English teacher, and I have all of the kids.  I have six groups of students, and my largest group is 26.  Now, please don't think that I'm complaining.  I'm very excited to do things on my own this year, and I'm even excited to have a few more classes, but the difference was very surprising on Friday.  By the end of the day, I was so sick of introducing myself.  I'm also having a TERRIBLE time with names.  I know it's only been one day, but I feel so bad because as I'm sitting here a mere two days later, I can only recall a handful of names.

That being said, I'm sure I'll remember their names soon, and I'm also sure I'll adjust to the change in my schedule.  I'm determined to make this a good year.  Two years ago, our school received a very bad grade from the state.  Last year, everyone worked very hard, and our scores improved tremendously; however, 7th grade English was still the biggest problem.  This puts a lot of pressure on me, but I'm determined to meet the challenge.

Although many people complained about us starting on Friday, I actually like the idea.  As I was discussing with a colleague yesterday: overall, not much really gets accomplished on the first day.  I agree with letting the kids get acclimated to their classes, letting them meet all of the teachers, and find their way around before we really get into classwork.  On Monday, I plan to dive right in.  I'm going to introduce our routines, and by Wednesday, I hope to start our first writing project.  I'll write more about that next week.  For now, I'm just excited to see my super cute new lesson plan book full of lessons again!