Ready, Set, Wait

At the end of the 2012-2013 school year, I packed up my personal classroom belongings in order to head for what will hopefully be greener pastures. I'm relocating to a school that is much closer to my house. Although I originally interviewed for a fourth grade position, I was hired on as a fifth grade teacher. 

All returning teachers (meaning everyone that is not newly hired to the district) are due to report back to school the Wednesday before school starts. That Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, in all my (three) years of experience, are usually spent in large meetings where you're discussing scheduling, new ways to assess children, and getting to know/reconnect with your coworkers. Depending on the school, you may be given an hour or two to work in your room to plan and set up, and it usually culminates in Friday afternoon/evening being a chance for students and parents to come in and meet their new teachers prior to the start of the school year. 

Even though this'll be my fourth year, I kind of feel as if I'm starting from scratch again: brand new classroom and have never taught fifth grade material a day in my life. ...Unless you count four months of student-teaching in college, but that was before all the newfangled standards came about. Anyway, I don't think those few hours the week before school starts are going to suffice, which is why, in a gesture that is totally uncharacteristic of me, I planned ahead to go in super early and get a good start on things. Though I’ve looked over the fifth grade standards a few times this summer, I want to look through the teacher's manuals to see how the materials will (or won't) correlate. That would also give me a chance to think about how to structure my lessons around the schedule that we were given at the last Staff Development Day (why is this capitalized as if it’s a holiday?) of last year. I also want to start decorating and organizing my room.

…I’ve got to digress for a moment and explain the decorating thing. Last year was the first time I even came close to implementing a theme in my classroom (pat on the back for the first person to guess what it was!). I found that because I had created a theme from something that I enjoy, I liked being in my room more. My students liked the room more, too. Weaving the theme into group names, classroom jobs, and data tracking for the students made them excited. Overall, it was a more inviting environment than just the few posters I’d had up the previous two years. The kicker was a parent of twins that went from her son’s room (mine) to her daughter’s room (my neighbor’s) and commented on how she liked that this room had things up on the wall. Hence my foray into creating a Harry Potter themed classroom over the course of last year was started.

Last week I stated that I would be visiting my new school. I did indeed make it in to my new classroom yesterday. However, things definitely did not go as planned. I'd intended to go in, get the lay of the land, take a few pictures, and make good on my intention of getting a decent head start on my school year. Summer school tenants, previous owners, and locked wardrobes thwarted my attempts to do pretty much anything I’d hoped to start. I wound up leaving with a student copy of the math and social studies books, and one of six teacher’s manuals for the reading series. If I were into using hashtags or Twitter (apparently the two are not mutually exclusive), I’m sure #teacherproblems would be applicable here. But that’s not my thing.

I’m not worried, just a little miffed that I’m not able to take advantage of the air-conditioned, meeting-less time at school that I’d been mentally prepared and looking forward to. I guess I’ll be skimming through those books and waiting for a call saying everything’s cleared out and ready to go.

Until next time…