Coming into this job in the middle of the school year has left me behind from the start. The substitutes for the last couple of months have given tons of work and graded that work, but they didn't have access to the grade book. Grades were put in by the counselor but there is still a lot to do. Tomorrow we are going to have a lesson on how to put name, last name, class period, and date on the paper.
The biggest thing that I have to say at the end of this first week is "thank you, Harry Wong!" Years of learning from his book "The First Days of School", and more recently having studied and attended lectures on his method, have given me the tools I needed to establish order in my classroom. My students walk in to my class, quietly take their seats, and begin the warm-up. It is so nice not to have to yell and scream to get class started. We spent the first few days reviewing my expectations and procedures again and again. Tomorrow we will review them again and like I said talk about headings on paper.
I love my job. I never thought it was possible to say that about a job!
