Thursday, August 22, 2013

First day, hooray!

Today was my first day teaching my very own class!  I am exhausted but thought I'd better blog about it while it is still fresh on my mind.

Last night was Back to School Night. I had most of my students and their parents attend. When they arrived I gave each student a Classroom Scavenger hunt worksheet to help familiarize them with the classroom before the first day. I also gave out information about the year to parents and had them fill out information for me about their child. Here are some pictures of my room from last night. Some of the walls are still pretty blank because I don't have a lot of posters and things to put up yet

Today was crazy!  I got to school at 6:55 and set things up. My first student arrived at 7:30. They aren't supposed to come in the building until 7:55, but he was so excited I let him stay. The day went pretty well. We started by making First Day books where students drew pictures of things like how they felt and what they'd like to learn. Then I showed them a power point about myself and let them ask me questions. Then we went over some class rules and procedures before we went out for s morning recess. On the way outside we took a tour of the school. After recess they worked on filling out an information page about themselves. We then used it for a game where I would read the info and they would guess who had written it. After the game it was time for lunch.

After lunch they came back and I had them start working on a math test that they were given at the end of last year so I could assess what they already know. It was pretty stressful for some of them. One little girl even cried because she didn't know an answer. I reassured them that the test was only for me to look at and they didn't need to worry about missing questions.  After math they went to prep. I was supposed to pick them up 40 min later but I forgot. The computer teacher brought them back to me and I was embarrassed. Then I was supposed to take them out for recess... But I forgot that too. When I remembered it was pretty late but we went out anyway. When we came back I explained homework and read aloud from Spencer's Adventures. At 2:30 they went home and I crashed!  I am so exhausted! I took a 3 hour nap after school and I'm all ready for bed now.

Overall, it was a good day. I feel like tomorrow will be better. Hopefully I feel rested when I wake up!