“This isn’t one of those times but you should prepare yourselves.”
Things I say to the children. Remember when I lied and said I was going to blog everyday? And then my phone broke and I slept all the hours and worked the other hours and then slept more. Yep, that.
But let’s recap:
Wednesday: Had a fun conversation about textbooks that involved me receiving some intense mansplaining about the technology. Let’s all be clear, I didn’t ask. Then I worked with the new teachers til 6:00 getting them ready for day one of teaching. Oh then I tired to get a new phone which also was not functional. Cool cool.
Thursday: Advisory olympics. Every advisory is a college (UAlbany Represent!). We lost hard. But it was fun. First day of teaching!!!! I did Which One Doesn’t Belong with all my classes using structured talk, private reasoning time, and questioning strategies to get them used to my classroom. Kids stood at the board and explained their thinking!!!! I also talked about all the habits of mind and habits of interactions we used.
Friday: First full day of classes. Dudes, I love teaching. I got there at 6am to watch the sunrise with the seniors then we watched Ferris Buller’s Day Off in the teacher. Then I taught my classes. Then I thought I might die of exhaustion. So I spent most of the weekend sleeping.
Today: I got to teach again!!! And my students are only getting better. They are the raddest of dudes. I am starting to gage my freshman better. I can see their attention waning and I like their humor. My seniors are learning my preferences for behaviors and most of them are getting it. They are super great but not the most effective when it comes to getting right to it. I am working on it.
One a side note on every one of those days I had conversations with my colleagues about teaching. Not just what problems to do but how we were going to teach them, what was important, and potential mistakes. Dudes, this is a magical place.
See you tomorrow (maybe, probably, hopefully?)
Annie
a brand new line. 