I Made The Right Choice
I’m flying high today. I think I’ve really lucked out with my circumstances here. Today is the first day I really feel confident that I choose to come here. I’m thinking that I know I can do this. My course planning is going well and I’m excited to start teaching. I feel I am confident I will do a good job here. I also like the fact that I am considered the math “expert” here. I could just be the best person at math in the entire village. I like being the best!
I had my first meeting with the evaluation person today. It went really smoothly. She even encouraged me to start a geocaching club of some sort. Part of my contract as a new teacher is to be evaluated. We were given a rubric of how will be evaluated. It looks very similar to some of the stuff that I used for my final report as a student teacher. The evaluator said that this rubric is the best rubric she has ever seen for teacher evaluation, and she’s seen a lot. She’s just retired from being a superintendent of the school district right next to the one I attended for my grade 4 to 12. If anyone wants me to send a copy of the rubric, let me know. As a new teacher, I’m evaluated so that I can be given a clear reason why I may or not be asked to stay for the 2007 -2008 school year. Plus, as I see it, it will be an excellent assessment of my teaching that I can use for jobs if I decide to not stay next year.
Why am I talking about staying next year when I’ve only just got here? Well, there is a big push on keeping teachers around because the students function better with teachers they’ve known for years. Well, that makes a lot of sense. It seems that in the past, the students have had trouble warming up to new teachers because there was such a high turnover of teachers.
But what I’ve seen in only a few days is that this is a wonderful place to be and teach. First off, the administration is great. They are so approachable. I know the VP will be one of my buddies while I’m here. And the principal is so involved with the school, which is nice to see. At my practicum school, the principal spent most of his time in his office doing admin type stuff. He didn’t even know my name, nor would he probably recognize me if I saw him in public, nor could he probably distinguish me from students in the school if I were wearing jeans. But the principal here not only knows my full name, she knows where I’m from and she cares about what I have to say.
The rest of the staff is super great too. Everyone I’ve met is really friendly and helpful. The other teachers are so unpretentious and willing to help me in anyway I need. The office staff is helpful too and very sweet. I remember at my practicum school, the head secretary was very good at her job, but you had to kiss her ass and stay on her good side or she could make your life hell. The maintenance staff is also friendly too. I know I’m going to enjoy working with the entire adult school community.
The school is also great about doling out resources. If I need supplementary books, all I have to do is ask. I’ve been told it is most likelythat I could order some GPS’s for the school to start my geocaching/outdoor club. Sweet!
I’m pretty much sold here about this being an incredible year. All that’s left is to meet the students.
Today we had an hour conversation about classroom management. Mostly, we discussed things I already practice and have heard. Here’s what we were basically told. The big thing here is to be consistent with policy and form relationships with the students as soon as possible. The best way to deal with unruly students is to take them aside and have a one-on-one conversation with them to see what’s going on. Don’t take things personally. The students usually don’t hold grudges so you shouldn’t either.
Token reinforcements are used school wide. The students are given tokens that they can “cash” in for prizes. In the high school, the students need a lot of tokens to cah in for prizes so I can give tokens out to students for almost any kind of positive reinforcement. I’ll use this to encourage students to bring their texts to class, as well as a pencil.
The big rule this year is that no MP3, iPods, cell phones, disc mans, etc. are allowed to be used inside and on school grounds.
This was quite an issue at my practicum school. I actually agree with my new school on this policy. The power struggles that will be avoided on this issue alone makes me glad that this is a rule. Anyone want to add their two cents here?
Tomorrow is the big boat trip. We meet at the school at 7:00am for coffee and muffins. Ugg, that’s early. We’ll be out and out exploring the traditional territory of the people here and doing some fishing etc. It will be an exciting day, I’m sure. Hopefully, it doesn’t rain (too much).
I had my first meeting with the evaluation person today. It went really smoothly. She even encouraged me to start a geocaching club of some sort. Part of my contract as a new teacher is to be evaluated. We were given a rubric of how will be evaluated. It looks very similar to some of the stuff that I used for my final report as a student teacher. The evaluator said that this rubric is the best rubric she has ever seen for teacher evaluation, and she’s seen a lot. She’s just retired from being a superintendent of the school district right next to the one I attended for my grade 4 to 12. If anyone wants me to send a copy of the rubric, let me know. As a new teacher, I’m evaluated so that I can be given a clear reason why I may or not be asked to stay for the 2007 -2008 school year. Plus, as I see it, it will be an excellent assessment of my teaching that I can use for jobs if I decide to not stay next year.
Why am I talking about staying next year when I’ve only just got here? Well, there is a big push on keeping teachers around because the students function better with teachers they’ve known for years. Well, that makes a lot of sense. It seems that in the past, the students have had trouble warming up to new teachers because there was such a high turnover of teachers.
But what I’ve seen in only a few days is that this is a wonderful place to be and teach. First off, the administration is great. They are so approachable. I know the VP will be one of my buddies while I’m here. And the principal is so involved with the school, which is nice to see. At my practicum school, the principal spent most of his time in his office doing admin type stuff. He didn’t even know my name, nor would he probably recognize me if I saw him in public, nor could he probably distinguish me from students in the school if I were wearing jeans. But the principal here not only knows my full name, she knows where I’m from and she cares about what I have to say.
The rest of the staff is super great too. Everyone I’ve met is really friendly and helpful. The other teachers are so unpretentious and willing to help me in anyway I need. The office staff is helpful too and very sweet. I remember at my practicum school, the head secretary was very good at her job, but you had to kiss her ass and stay on her good side or she could make your life hell. The maintenance staff is also friendly too. I know I’m going to enjoy working with the entire adult school community.
The school is also great about doling out resources. If I need supplementary books, all I have to do is ask. I’ve been told it is most likelythat I could order some GPS’s for the school to start my geocaching/outdoor club. Sweet!
I’m pretty much sold here about this being an incredible year. All that’s left is to meet the students.
Today we had an hour conversation about classroom management. Mostly, we discussed things I already practice and have heard. Here’s what we were basically told. The big thing here is to be consistent with policy and form relationships with the students as soon as possible. The best way to deal with unruly students is to take them aside and have a one-on-one conversation with them to see what’s going on. Don’t take things personally. The students usually don’t hold grudges so you shouldn’t either.
Token reinforcements are used school wide. The students are given tokens that they can “cash” in for prizes. In the high school, the students need a lot of tokens to cah in for prizes so I can give tokens out to students for almost any kind of positive reinforcement. I’ll use this to encourage students to bring their texts to class, as well as a pencil.
The big rule this year is that no MP3, iPods, cell phones, disc mans, etc. are allowed to be used inside and on school grounds.
This was quite an issue at my practicum school. I actually agree with my new school on this policy. The power struggles that will be avoided on this issue alone makes me glad that this is a rule. Anyone want to add their two cents here?
Tomorrow is the big boat trip. We meet at the school at 7:00am for coffee and muffins. Ugg, that’s early. We’ll be out and out exploring the traditional territory of the people here and doing some fishing etc. It will be an exciting day, I’m sure. Hopefully, it doesn’t rain (too much).
posted by Small Town Teacher @ 6:25 PM
1 Comments:
At August 31, 2006 4:33 PM,
Small Town Teacher said…
It's a linear system ... but electives are a bit strange. There are 6, 6-week terms where each term the students take another elective (including career and health planning which I teach). I'll teach 4 of these 6 terms.
There are 6 blocks a day, so 4 academic blocks, one elective block and a 40 minute block of literacy.
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