So I survived my official first day of school! Last year I compared teaching to waiting tables in the weeds for a 8 hour shift, and boy was that true today.
If I am being honest I was a little let down. I have done the first day routine before, the luxury of teaching a semester class is that I get a new class every January, so I thought. But nothing really compares you for a true first day of school.
Our school is running a modified schedule for this whole week. One hour SEL(home room like class) all eight periods in a 30 minute window each and a 40 minute lunch where we walk them to the cafeteria, ending the day with 30 minutes in our SEL class.
From arriving on campus and showing up for duty, the day was a mess of a whirlwind. Nothing bad happened, nothing exciting happened and I talked A LOT!
In SEL we had to disburse schedules, show them lunch schedules, have students who were missing immunizations call home then send them to the cafeteria while going through the whole entire parent packet. Oh and get to know each other. Yea, even reading at maniac status I couldn't get through all of that.
Then we were in full on go mode! Thirty minutes to meet a class is just not enough time. I know its important to teach procedures, I have a lesson plan for 5 days of teaching procedures, I am truly that serious about procedures. But today I had to choose between a fun get to know you or procedures. So I chose procedures and talked for nearly the entire 25 minutes. In my room I need them to know at least understand how to enter, leave, calls for attention and run through the syllabus. By time I got through all of those items I had about 5 minutes left in class, I even had a bulleted powerpoint so I wouldn't deviate.
While I didn't expect to make any amazing magical connection on day one, I really wanted to have a more fun welcome to the school year.
One of the many joys of teaching is that tomorrow is always a fresh start, so hopefully I will have a better grasp of this 30 minute period day and we will devote a little more time for fun and a little less time to me talking, at least my throat certainly hopes so.
The Babbling Box!
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