It's the last day before Back-to-School and I'm sitting here on my couch enjoying a French Press and some morning talk shows.

I'm feeling good about going back to school tomorrow. The other day I was talking to one of my friends from school and she was lamenting the end of summer vacation. I got back from nine weeks of traveling in the Middle East on Monday so for me I feel like vacation is already over anyway. This past week has sorta just felt like killing time. I guess that's why I wasn't at all bothered by going into my classroom two days last week to start getting set up. I was in fact excited to do it. This is going to be my fifth year teaching and there have been summers where I went in early and summers where I didn't. This year it just felt right. I spent about eight hours total in my room and it's already looking fabulous. Teaching gets easier every year, and I guess so does setting up your room. I completely rearranged the set up of my room this year but it took no time at all (probably because I'd been imagining it since the middle of last year). I stopped by the dreaded "Teacher Store" and quickly picked up exactly what I needed. I now know exactly what to buy and where to find it. I was even smart enough this year to go before the crazy crowds and avoided waiting in line for more than an hour like usual. I think it's going to be a good year.

Tomorrow I get to start the fun part which is figuring out which kids tested out of ESL and which kids will be coming in. It's a long process but it's my favorite part of the year.

Now the real challenge: getting to bed early tonight so I can wake up at 6am! Ugh.

Ok, so I know this is totally wrong to say and I'm SURE I'll be regretting it soon, but . . . I'm actually sorta looking forward to going back to school a little.

(Please, don't hurt me for saying it.)

I've been having a fabulous vacation (better than I could have imagined) but I'm also looking forward to getting back to real life. Like my apartment, my friends, the city, and yes, even school.

It's going to be an interesting year with our assistant principal-turned-principal. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my little ones (especially my babies in the first grade who will now be second graders!!). And I love all of the beginning of the year organizing: my classroom, my schedule, finding out who's new to ESL this year and who tested out.

I'm sure come October 1st I'll already be counting down to summer break, but for now I'm reveling in the last days of summer and thinking about the year to come.

Back to School . . .

tomorrow!

Actually, ever since last Friday I am kind of excited to go back. I'm excited to see my students (though I won't be teaching them for a few more weeks), to put the finishing touches on my classroom, and to organize and plan my schedule for this year.

Getting my groups organized is my favorite part of getting ready for the new year. Friday I printed a report that showed me how my students did on the NYSESLAT last spring. From that I can see which of my students will be returning, who moved up a level in proficiency, and who tested out of ESL. So far it looks like I'll have a very small group of kids in the upper grades (just 4 fourth and fifth graders). I have many more second and third graders than in the past so that group may become two either based on grade level or proficiency depending on the students. As for Kindergarteners, I have no idea yet what that will look like.

My big task for Tuesday will be going through all of the new admits to see who is eligible to take the test to enter the ESL program. After I do that and then test the students I will finally know which students will be in the program and then I can start to make my schedule. I usually have five groups of students (based on proficiency and grade level). The tricky part is organizing my schedule so that it doesn't conflict with the prep schedule, lunch schedule, math classes, etc. As of last year I've sort of taken a more relaxed attitude toward planning my schedule. I have 40+ kids to organize into 5 teaching periods a day and all the obstacles of the lunches and preps to get around. I can only do what I can do with my schedule. Not all the teachers will be happy with when I am taking their students out and not all students will get their full mandated time, but I am just one person with a tight schedule and I can't make everyone happy. My schedule was much more consistent and organized with this new attitude that I took last year and I plan to do the same this year.

Big Suprise at School Today

In our first PD of the morning my AP starts going on about the guided lending library and how you can check out books to use with your classes.

Huh? What? Where?

"Wait, what about the library? Where is it now?" I asked. "In the closet. Ms. X moved all the boxes and spent a lot of time labeling it." Replied the AP. *Me mildly panicking inside.*

After the meeting I went to go look at the closet and to my surprise it looked beautiful! It's in the closet that I originally wanted it and it looks great. The labels are actually the check out cards that I made. Since they cut them to be labels I'll have to come up with a new sort of check out system but it's OK because I understand why they had to do that to make them fit. I'm very happy. Check it out:
(Just a portion of the library.)

In other news, my principal came up to me this morning before the beginning of her meeting and said with a big smile, "A lot of things may change. We know what you want." Referring to the fact that we now have two coach vacancies so classroom teachers may get put in those positions thus opening a lower grade class for me. Why would she say that?? We still wouldn't have and ESL teacher so I'd have to stay. If she really wanted to give me what I wanted she would have looked for an ESL teacher to replace me over the summer. Just why? Why would she bring that up again when it is not going to happen. And now even if she did offer it to me--hello, I just spent all day organizing and decorating my room. Aargh.

Well, over all it was a decent day. Look at all the supplies I got from our basement.

Not Going in Early

I was going to start this post by saying that this is the first summer since I started teaching that I have absolutely no desire to go into work early and start getting my classroom ready but in looking back on my old posts, I was feeling EXACTLY the same way on this day a year ago. I only got back from Italy eight days ago so I haven't had any time to have my lazy summer days or the get in that summer productiveness that comes with all that time off. I was literally gone from the day school let out so I didn't have any time to be home. I certainly wasn't going to give up one of those days to be in my classroom. Again, maybe if I were going to have kids in my room on the first day of school I'd be energized to get a head start on things, but it'll be the end of September before that happens.

I was reading some blogs this morning and saw that the other Ms. M was also not feeling going in to school early but was getting pressure from her administration and coaches to do so. Other commenters said they were getting the same thing. I wondered if maybe the same was going on at my school so I checked my DOE email for the first time since June but didn't find any such pleadings. No doubt on Thursday when we go into school our principal will publicly thank the teachers who did come in early but I will be content knowing that I enjoyed my last days of summer and won't have even an inkling of guilt.

Summer Planning?

It's the last week of summer and as Nancy says "everyone has planning on the brain." Everyone except me that is. I've never been a good long-term planner. Beginning from my first summer before teaching I just couldn't sit down and plan. Then it was because I had no idea what my ESL pull-out teaching assignment would look like or what would be expected of me. While all my TFA colleagues were home planning their hearts out I just couldn't as much as I wanted to.

Now that I've had three years experience I still am no good at planning. My current excuse is that I want my lessons to support what the students are doing in their regular classrooms so I wait to see what they are doing with their teachers and plan accordingly. Usually that means that I plan on a week by week basis. Also, I have six grade levels (K-5) that I have to plan for. That really doesn't lend itself very well to long term unit planning for each class. Lastly, when it comes to summer planning, I'm just not under pressure like the other teachers are to get things ready for day one. On September 2nd our building will fill with students anxious for their first day. Teachers will be setting the tone for the year, introducing routines and procedures, and generally trying to make it though the day. I on the other hand will stroll in five minutes before the bell rings and get down to paper work and administrative duties. Three weeks in when teachers are really starting to know their classes and summer had faded to a distant memory I'll be picking up my kids for the first time. Needless to say, I'll have some time to think about what I want to teach for my first week of class.

I wish that I were more like Nancy and that I loved to plan, but so far I just haven't hit that groove. I'd love to think that with a different teaching position or a more supportive school environment that I'd be able to do it, but maybe I just don't have it in me.

So here I am in the last week of summer. School's just a distant thought in my mind. Before I know it I'll wake up and it'll be back to work, the summer a yesterday away.

Will I ever get my own class?

For the second year in a row now I put on my preference sheet that I want my own class instead of teaching ESL. Just like last year my choices were 1) first grade, 2) Kindergarten, and 3) second grade. I talked with the principal and she knows that I really, really want this for all the same reasons as last year. This year though she keep mentioning how she knows I'm "not comfortable with the inconsistent schedule of being an out of classroom teacher." Weird that this year she tries to subtly put me down by saying I can't handle an inconsistent schedule of coverages and maybe I should "consider going into the classroom" when last year she said she had seen me in coverages and I needed to work on my classroom management if she were to consider giving me my own class. Contradictory much? Anyway, she said she would seriously consider it though it is problematic to create a vacancy in a "high-needs" license area. (Makes me think I'm definitely not getting it as she's already set me up for why she can't.) Then at the full day PD last week when her and I were discussing yearbook stuff she said I needed to make sure to go to the PD with the rest of the teachers because I need to "be in the loop in case I have my own classroom next year." (And still I think she's just saying that to say it.)

I know that next year they are adding a first grade class and a Kindergarten class and both of the current Kindergarten teachers want to move to new grades so there should be plenty of movement if she really wants to give it to me. The tentative organization sheet is due out Thursday.

In Search of Students

At this point in the school year as other teachers are writing about how the first week of classes went, what their new students are like, and what they have been doing to get their students ready for the upcoming year, I am still doing administrative work and trying to sort out who my students are. I've written before about the long process of going over reports and test scores and rummaging through cumulative folders of new students to determine ESL eligibility. I swore that this year I was going to get through the process more quickly so that I could see students as soon as possible. So far my plan isn't working. There are always things stopping me from doing what I need to do. First of all, the main report that I need to tell me which kids passed last year's NYSESLAT and what proficiency level the other kids scored won't print (or show up on the computer). I've been trying all week! I finally figured out another way to look up the info but that only tells me if they passed or not (knowing the proficiency level is essential to forming pull-out groups).

Another thing is that the secretary, who is supposed to help me get the reports and student data I need is always too busy to help me. I understand that this is a busy time of year for her too but I feel like she doesn't realize that sometimes I can't do ANYTHING until I get a particular report from her. So when she just tells me that she can't do it now and doesn't tell me when she can, it gets really frustrating.

With all of the information that I've gathered so far, I can tell that I have a minimum of 47 students! That's eight more than I started with last year and I'm still not done finding students. Thirteen of those students are kindergarteners! (I think there will be at least a few more too.) That is sooo many. When I pick them up for ESL they won't really be in a small group setting but a class that is almost as big as their regular class. That's going to be a huge challenge. Also about five or six of the kindergarteners have a low level of English. Previously most of my students have just had low literacy levels but a fairly high level of spoken English. These kids don't know basic words that they need to understand or speak to their teacher. I'm definitely going to have to start rethinking how I teach my kindergarten class.

As for the rest of the administrative process, I still have to finish identifying new ELLs, get proficiency levels from last year's test, send out parent letters to all students who were tested in the spring or fall, and hold an orientation for parents of new ELLs. With the short week coming and who knows what unforeseen obstacles, I'm thinking end of next week before I'm finished. So much for getting done early.

Here We Go

After a month off, it's back to blogging (and back to school).

I didn't go into school this week, unlike last year when I did for two days and was chastised by a few fellow bloggers (the comments are no longer there). It's not that I necessarily agree that we absolutely shouldn't go in before school starts, it's just that I haven't been very motivated to get back to school this year. I haven't bought or planned ANYTHING for the new year yet. I suppose that is partly because I know that I won't have kids in my room for two to three weeks so I have a little extra time to get things sorted out once school gets started.

So . . . instead of spending today in my room cleaning, organizing, and decorating, I took full advantage of my last glorious day of summer. After sleeping in, I went to my first yoga class at Laughing Lotus. Then I met one of my friends who has been out of the city for the summer for lunch in the East Village to catch up and talk about the dread of returning to school. We walked around for a while and after she left to get a pedicure I went to the Sugar Cafe on Allen/Houston for a slice of tiramisu cheesecake and iced coffee while reading my book. A fabulous day and so much better than going into school.

Now I'm trying to do about ten things at once including make dinner, wash my laundry, write this post, and catch up on a few shows I have recorded on my DVR. My body is not at all programed to be going to bed early and getting up at I can't even remember what time. I don't want to think about it yet.

We have to go to school tomorrow??

So I did go into my classroom everyday this week. (Sorry to those of you who suggested that I not, but I am still a very new teacher going to a new school and I needed the chance to sort through a retired teacher's things, organize furniture, and just get a sense of the place. I'm sure that when I've been teaching for ten years I won't need to do that anymore. And just in case you were wondering, no I certainly did not do it to kiss up to the administration.) Having said that, I didn't spend nearly as much time in my room as I had hoped to. Monday was the biggest day I arrived around 11:00 and stayed until 5:30. It took me ages to set up the furniture just how I wanted it with centers and the library as the focus of the room, etc. Tuesday I showed up in the afternoon and only stayed about an hour and a half because I had to run to my event at the Heritage House. Today I decided to take care of some last minute things before going into school. I also wanted to take my last opportunity to sleep in on a weekday so I didn't get the early start I had hoped for. I had to go to my old school and load up my stuff and bring it to the new one. I saw my TFA friends there. I thought I would be really sad to leave them but seeing my old room I was just sooooo happy that I don't have to spend another year in there. Seriously. So. Happy. By the time I got to my new school it was 4pm and the principal had already left so the janitor would only let me put my stuff in the auditorium. I really wanted to get a few hours of work in but I guess it will have to wait for tomorrow.

I am very much in denial that school is starting tomorrow. I mean seriously, I have to set my alarm tonight? I have to get up at 6am? I know that I am going to school tomorrow but it doesn't feel like school is starting.

Free Stuff!

I was walking home from the subway tonight and saw a sign that said "Free Books and Games." I grabbed an armful of stuff to take home with me. Look at everything I got. Nice books all in good condition and two colorful shapes games. I can definitely use this stuff in my classroom. I think I am going to go back tomorrow and leave a little note on the door thanking whomever left this stuff on the curb for the donation and letting them know that their books will be put to good use! I'm most excited about Chicka Chicka 123. My kindergarteners loved Chicka Chicka Boom Boom last year.

Getting Ready for the Year

Wednesday I finished my grad school classes for the summer. Yippee! Only 19 days until classes start again.

I still haven't had time to really work on stuff for my classroom. I did spend most of today working on a packet that I am going to present to new TFA teachers going into Region 5. A group of about ten corps members who just completed their first year got together and thought about what they wished they had know or had explained to them about Region 5 expectations. (It really is a crazy region). We came up with the idea of a packet detailing all of the logistics about the classroom environment, portfolios, exit projects, report cards, basically everything we were just expected to know (without being told). Everyone wrote a part of the packet and then another teacher and I synthesized all of the information into one packet. Tuesday evening were having a gathering at the Brownsville Heritage House where we are going to present the information. Also, the director of the Heritage House is going to talk about the history of the community, the people who live there, the cultural heritage, etc. The first time you step into Brownsville you can get a bit of culture shock. The director said she wanted to let all of the new teachers know things about the community beyond what is reported on in the news everyday. That is true. I told her though that honestly, all of these teachers are from all over the country (not from here) so they most likely don't even know anything about Brownsville (good or bad) at this point. The walk from the subway to their school interview is all they know. And as I said, that can be a very new (and shocking) experience for most. So, I think this event will be really great.

Tomorrow I'm presenting another packet that I wrote (all alone this time) on how to be an ESL coordinator. Many of the new ESL teachers are the only ones in their buildings. In NYC there is so much paper work and so many reports involved with ESL that it can be really confusing if you don't have anyone to explain it to you. My administration last year certainly didn't have any clue as to what I was supposed to do. For the entire first week they kept saying they were going to give me a class list only to find out later that I had to check cumulative records and test scores and administer an entrance exam to find out which students were mine. Hopefully by giving them this information up front the new teachers will be able to speed up the whole process and start TEACHING sooner.

After the meeting in the afternoon I'm going to the teacher store. And then, seriously, I am going to start planning everything that I need to do for September and beyond.

Procrastination

Instead of working on my last paper for grad school yesterday, I met my friend Amanda for a late lunch at Bar Toto on Sixth Avenue. Afterall, she's only in town for one day between trips to Austin and Toronto and I still have three days to whip up that ten page paper.

We both drank Campari and Soda--a nice reminder of aperitivo in Italy but certainly not an every day drink for me. She had a mixed bruschetta plate and I had rigatoni with eggplant and smoked mozzarella. The food was great (definitely better than Tutta Pasta we both agreed). We had a long lunch catching up on our summer travels and then said goodbye until she returns on the 28th.

Now I'm still procrastinating on getting started. I have to get this paper out of the way so that I can focus on planning for next year.

Last Weeks of Summer

So it's now the home stretch until school starts. I must admit, I haven't really done much to prepare for the upcoming year. The two workshops that I attended did put some ideas in my head so I kind of know where I want to go but I haven't really had time to think things through and get some real planning done. My excuse is that I've had a lot of grad school work to do. (Online courses are much more labor intensive than the in person classes). I just have two papers left to finish, one due Sunday and the other Wednesday. After that, I'm free to focus on next year.

This year I feel like I am starting all over. Not only am I going to a new school so I don't know entirely what to expect, but I plan on doing things a lot differently than last year. I had such small groups last year that I could get away with minimal planning. A lot of what I did in class was actually working one on one with students. Next year that won't be the case. My main structures for class next year are going to be read alouds, centers, writing workshop, and something I learned at the CLI institute called Message Time Plus. I will put those elements together to form a sort of literacy block. There is still so much to think about and plan though. And, I've never done writer's workshop so I am kind of worried about that.

Next week I hope to sketch out some ideas for routines, organization and planning. The week of the 28th I plan to be in my classroom getting set up the whole week. Then the next week school starts. Seriously, where did the summer go??

We'll Call These The Before Pictures

Two weeks ago I went to my new school to get a better look at my new classroom. I was excited about it when I went for my interview but now I am thrilled. I really lucked out on this room. At the interview I was excited about the rug, the cabinets, the windows and the computers. I didn't even notice that the room had THREE computers (with a printer! Hmm, I wonder if I have internet?), tons of great picture books (in English and Spanish), all kinds of manipulatives, and an air conditioner!! The teacher who left the position retired and left sooo much stuff in the closets and in the filing cabinets. Good stuff. I seriously have everything I can think of in terms of supplies: pencils, paper, index cards, chart paper, slates, felt boards, white boards, you name it. I was in the teacher store last week with another teacher friend and she kept seeing things she wanted for her room and I'd say, "I have that in my classroom!" The best part is, this teacher was super organized so I wont have to spend a lot of time digging through junk. Everything is organized and labeled (just the way I like it). There are a few things I can see that'll need to be thrown out but nothing too out of control.

I can't wait to get in there and organize the furniture and decorate the walls and set up my library. So here are the before pictures . . .

The left side of the room.


The right side of the room. Already I can see there are way too many desks. I don't think I'll have more than twelve students at a time so I'd like to get rid of the ones I don't need and keep only matching ones if possible.


The library. This is going to be my favorite part. I already got some pillows, a comfy chair, and some stuffed animals to make this a cozy space. I can't wait to fix it up.


OK, well that is the sneak preview for now. I'll post the after pictures in a few weeks.

My Classroom

I finally went to my school and got inside of my classroom today! Very exciting. It's small but I'm only going to have small groups of kids with me at any given time. It's really cozy--I love it. (There are other teachers who have the same sized room for 15 kids and that is really cramped.) When I got to my room it was still jam packed with books, supplies, desks, etc. My room used to belong to the Literacy Coach and Math Coach and they hadn't moved their stuff out yet. I met the Math Coach and she was the first person from my school who I've been able to talk to and ask school specific questions (I hadn't had any contact with my principal since my interview). I offered to help her move her stuff up to the second floor and I think she really likes me now because of that. She was introducing me to all of the staff and telling them to take care of me and give me supplies. She donated a few things to me already. I'll take anything I can get. The Literacy Coach still had tons of stuff in there so I couldn't really organize my room at all. Now that I know what the space is like I have a sense of how I want to arrange it. I want to have a carpet area but there's no rug in the room. The Math Coach said she'd try to find one for me. Yeah!

I FINALLY talked to the principal and it turns out there's an explanation for why he didn't respond to any of my emails over the summer. I found out this morning that the principal who hired me is no longer at the school. It's funny because I had gotten an email the other day saying when I could come into my classroom but I had no idea who it was from. Now I know it was the new principal.

I found out some other news about my classroom. So, we have some after school program at my school three days a week (M,W,F) and the coordinators need a place to plan and get organized for the kids after school. As luck would have it, that place is my room (my small, cozy room, remember). I asked my principal what I should do if they were going to be in my room but I had students. She said that they are only two adults and space is tight. Maybe sometimes I would have to take my kids to the library or sometimes they could go to the library. Doesn't it seem like the two adults should be the ones to go to the library rather than my group of kids who have a classroom. Why give me a classroom if I don't get to use it all the time? It doesn't make sense to me at all. I'm hoping that as things progress it will become obvious that the only thing that makes sense is for the the kids to stay in the room.

I was also told today that I should be having an ESL meeting on Tuesday. I'm sooo excited. I'm thinking that this could be the answer to all of my questions, though I know that I've wrongfully assumed that before (ESL training with TFA, Region 5 training). I still have to be hopeful. I really don't know what I'm supposed to be teaching!

After going to my school I went to the teacher store. I was so overwhelmed by everything there that I ended up only buying a few things (some borders, letters and a calendar). Then I went to Staples and spent $100. I was mostly focusing on buying stuff to get organized (file folders, hanging folders, file boxes the students can access, etc.). It's hard to know now how I will want to organize all of my paperwork, student paperwork, etc. In college I always started out with one spiral notebook where I took notes for all my classes for one or two weeks. Then when I got a sense of how I wanted to organize myself for each class I would go out and buy binders, notebooks, dividers. That's kind of what I want to do now (wait and see) but I want to have a start so that don't get bogged down with paperwork. I love organization so I have to get it just right. The other thing I bought at Staples was such an indulgence that I feel so guilty for spending $30 on it when I am so poor--a label maker. I love to label everything. I'm so excited but I'm having a bit of buyer's remorse.

So, things are progressing. Hopefully I'll be going to my classroom tomorrow to get some more work done. I still have to move all my stuff to my apartment too. I'm dreading having to make several trips on the subway with all of my bags. And it doesn't help that Williamsburg (where all my stuff is) is soo poorly connected to Park Slope (where I'm moving). Aargh.

The first day just keeps getting closer and closer . . .

Today was our last training day for TFA. We are finally free to go into our classrooms and teach. In some ways I feel so prepared and in other ways I feel totally lost.

The things that I am feeling good about are all the things that TFA has been drilling into us for the entire summer: classroom management, investing students, high expectations. What I'm really at a loss for is what it is that I'm actually going to be teaching my students. I know that I am responsible for the English language acquisition of my students but I don't know how I'm supposed to go about teaching it. Should I do it in the context of English Language Arts, or should it be in the context of the content areas. And then there is the whole thing about significant academic gains. I know that I can track and take responsibility for their mastery of English (speaking, reading, writing and listening) but what about content areas. Today we had an ESL break out group and we were repeatedly told to not forget about the content areas. In many cases we (the ESL teachers) may be the only educator providing any comprehensible content to our students. We can't forget about the content areas. But how am I supposed to plan lessons around several content areas for nine different grade levels? Especially when I may have some students for just 180 minutes a week.

Another question that comes up is how do I plan my rules and procedures for such a wide grade span? It's hard (if not impossible) to come up with procedures that would be the same for Kindergarteners as well as 8th graders. Should I break the grades up into K-3, 4-8 when planning rules and procedures, or even into three groups? I think that I may have around 18 total students (if I can trust the school's web site). It's hard for me to envision how my classroom will look and sound when I don't know what the groupings will be like and how many students there will be in each group. I feel like a lot of management strategies that we have learned are geared to a classroom of 25+ students. How do I adapt that to a smaller group of four students who are stepping into a classroom for the first time in this country?

All summer I've been thinking that there would be this magical day when I would suddenly know what my situation would be like and then I could start planning. I'm starting to realize that that day isn't coming.

I was given some advice (and I know that a lot of other corps members are doing this too) to just plan for teaching procedures and classroom culture lessons in the first two weeks. Like I explained before, I'm feeling like I can't do even that. I'm scared that the first day is going to come and I'm just going to show up at school knowing nothing.

So, having worked through all these anxieties by putting them down on paper (or the computer screen) I do have some next steps. First, I hear that principals should be back at schools on Monday so I'm going to try and contact mine and finally speak to him for the first time since my interview. Second, today I was given the number for the ESL coordinator in my region. That could possible be a good person to get some information. Or at least ideas on what ESL teachers do in other schools.

... and, to add to all of the stress, I STILL haven't found a place to live. It's starting to get to the point of desperation.

New Teacher Training

The Department of Education New Teacher Training just ended today. I can't say that it was really that useful. Basically we just had a two day overview of all of the things that we've been learning all summer. It really made me appreciate how well we were prepared during Induction, Institute and Orientation. Everything that was covered in the two day training was information that we had already discussed extensively during sessions at Institute and then put into practice in our classrooms. It was nice to know that at least they are trying to help new teachers out. I do wonder about people that don't already know the basics that they were presenting though. Really I feel like all of my questions and concerns are school specific at this point. I'm told that all of the principals report to school on Monday, so I'm thinking that I'll take a trip to my school and see what I can figure out. I really want to be as prepared as possible but at this point there are just so many variables that I don't know what to prepare for.

I just have to say, in praise for Teach For America . . . Orientation just ended on Thursday and today we got an email saying that they went over our feedback from the four day orientation. They told us the sessions that we said we found most/least useful and then the changes that they will be implementing for not only next year's orientation, but for our Professional Development Day this Saturday. This organization never ceases to amaze me with their responsiveness and efficiency.

Still So Many Questions

The first day of school keeps getting closer and closer and I still don't have a clue as to what I will be doing the first day/weeks of school. The only thing I know about my job is that I am teaching K-8 ESL. The principal didn't tell me anything about the position (other than I'd be doing push-in/pull-out--and he only told me that much because I asked). I looked on the school's web site and saw that there are only 18 ELLs in the whole school (though I'm not sure how accurate that is) and I am responsible for all of them. That's not so many kids but I'm not sure how that works when they span 9 grade levels. I have sooo many questions to ask the principal. Basic questions that need to be answered before I can start any planning. I wrote him an email the other day only asking the three most pressing questions and still haven't gotten word back. He's probably on vacation now or something but I talked to another new teacher at my school and she emailed him 2 weeks ago and still hasn't gotten a response. I definitely don't feel like it's time to start panicking just yet. There's still time to get organized. But I'm wondering what's going to happen if I don't ever get my questions answered and I show up to the first day not knowing anything! I know that a lot of my colleagues are in the same position of not having a lot of information to go on but I feel like it's harder being an ESL teacher. If you know you are teaching 3rd grade, you can look up the standards for third grade and at least start to come up with a long term plan. In my position, I don't know how I am going to have my days structured, how I will work with the general education teachers, what I will be expected to teach the kids, how long I will have them. It's really a lot to think about. I'm not panicking yet though.

Oh, and as for the housing search--I still haven't found anything!

Classroom Library

I'm going to submit a proposal on Donorschoose.org for a classroom library. I'm trying to compile a list of books to include. Anyone have any essential books (K-8) that shouldn't be left off the list? I'm especially interested in books that portray characters from a variety of backgrounds and recent immigrant stories.