or even non-teacher friends.....I need advice. I have a busy summer ahead of me. What would you say is the most important thing to "worry" about for the new school year? What worked/didn't work for you? What should I prepare for the most? I'll take any advice anyone is willing to give about teaching and surviving and the tricks of the trade.
This morning I got on the Region III website and booked myself for 4 different trainings, and two of them are a week long. At least this will get some of these training hours out of the way for later on down the road. I'm so thankful I was able to get hired so early... before school was even out! I feel like that may have been God's way of keeping me calm. Anyone that me knows me knows my obsession with being prepared, organized and in control of the situation. If I had had to wait until July, or heaven-forbid, even August to find out about a job... I might have gone crazy and/or had a husband file for divorce.
Now, I am able to think about my classroom, go to plenty of training, decide if I want to be the cheerleading sponsor or not, go shoe shopping, create fun lesson plans, and just RELAX!
Meanwhile, I am still working at probation 3 days a week and plan on staying through most of the summer. I sort-of made an estimated 'quit date' of July 16th without the approval of my husband. Like it or not, he wears the pants around here.
I don't get to sign a contract until June 15ish, after YISD school board meets again. This is just standard procedure, but I am so anxious to get into my classroom and start organizing and decorating. I have already looked at BigLots and their book shelves are CHEAP! Any suggestions on decor? Where to get it? What not to do? Rememeber, I am teaching 7th graders... so the decor doesn't have to be too cutesty-poo.
Oh girl I could go on about this for HOURS!! The biggest thing is your classroom management plan. If you don't have that you have NOTHING!! I know you have most likely heard this a million times...but start our kind of mean. You can always get nicer but NEVER the other way around. That was the difficult thing for me being a high school teacher and looking like one of them. I had to make sure they knew I was the boss not one of their friends. It's hard...but so worth it. Time management is another thing OVER PLAN. You can always save something for the next day but if they finish early and get board that’s when you start having problems.
ReplyDeleteOn the decor...I watched the hobby lobby adds and just bought stuff when it was on sale and just did a little at a time. You can go broke, so be careful. I'm starting all over this year because I'm moving schools and the colors are totally different. :(
Hope this helps a little...let me know if you need anything!! Good Luck!!
e-mail me at ashlee.ward@comalisd.org and I can go into more detail.
ReplyDeletekaley send me your email on facebook and i'll give you a long list of things that have worked awesome for me!
ReplyDeletekaley....come see me this summer when you are home....i agree with ashlee...you have to have classroom management...and that is the hardest part! good luck!
ReplyDeleteOkay... I'm the most organized, OCD, prepared person that I know. AND I teach 7th graders. I have a lot of tricks that work and make my days SO easy... which means I'm outta here by 3:45 pm. If you want to come to my school one day before we let out, I'd love to show you some things and even print out some things that help me. It's really the little things like make-up work, filing, sub plans, etc. It's the "organized systems" that can be stressful when you begin, but if you have it ready before hand, it makes it so easy. Let me know, my email is krkastner@gmail.com
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