Day 1-3

So today was the first day for the 10-12 kids. My classes are HUGE. Three of five have 28-30 students, while the smaller ones have 22 and 20. However, they seem to be a pretty good bunch around the board. Of course it’s only day one so most kids are on their best behavior. We’ll see how they are tomorrow (even though they may be weirded out by the abnormal daily schedule).

I have a lot of kids that I had last year (either coming from my 1CP class to my 2CP or 2H classes or coming from my 2CP or 2H classes to my 3CP classes). That’s good because they’re basically the good ones (minus a few), and my crappy short-term memory doesn’t have to work as hard because I know a lot of the kids’ names already.

Can we talk about how extremely forgetful I have become? It’s so bad that I know that I need to make lists now before I forget, but in the process of getting the pen & paper, I forget what I’m going to write down!! I’m too young to have alzheimer’s (sp?). Can’t take it. By the end of the day, I was pretty much in information overload mode because I just couldn’t remember anybody’s name!

Anyways, I really need to get on top of my planning. Really. It’s ridiculous that I’m planning to wing it a lot already this year. God forbid I ever work at a school where I have to submit lesson plans in advance (I only have to do that now when I’m being observed formally) – I would die! Well, with my 2CP and 2H classes, I pretty much know exactly what I need to cover and what kind of assessments I plan to do because I taught them both last year. My 3CP class will not be too difficult to plan the first three chapters because I covered those chapters last year in my 2H classes (our curriculum is very weird and wacky, don’t ask). I know I need to plan things to make the class more fun though, you know, those things that actually require you to prepare ahead of time to make it interesting and functional!

Tomorrow begins Day 2. (Would it really be Day 3? I dunno. I’ll just call it Day 2 since today is Day 1-3 by my book!) I plan to give them a little sheet about how important it is to read directions (something developed by a coworker, or someone else, that has a list of silly things for kids to do such as “Turn to your neighbor and ask him if he knows the way to San José,” “Do 5 jumping jacks,” “Run up and touch the flag,” and other silly things, then ends with “Do not do anything of these things other than #1” (#1 says “Write your name in the top right-hand corner of this paper.”). It’s hilarious, and shows you just how many kids do not read directions!! I’ll also give out textbooks and give them some fantastic homework to do over our 4-day holiday weekend. Thank God Friday is a holiday for us!!