Archive for August 23rd, 2009

I think I’ve done everything I can to get ready — lesson plans are in the bag, and the prep work is done. I’ve created an activity for social studies where the kids make, in four separate quarters, our Texas map, then we tape it all together for display. I’m kind of excited about this but also worried it won’t work.  Another thing — Southwestern Texas doesn’t have as many map details as the rest of the quarters. But perhaps we will include a few details from Mexico in that portion.

Dean told me I should not be so worried about my first day, because the real “first” time you teach is the first time you stood in front of a class. It’s true, I was a substitute teacher.

But tonight, I feel as if I’m in the calm before the storm. I’m not cooking dinner, someone else was recruited for that, so I’m just blogging and listening to the kids play video games. I’ve got my roll sheet and my policies and procedures, and if my classroom looks rather bare compared to the rooms of the teachers who’ve been there a while, nevertheless, it does look ready, with stacks of books on the desks, an icebreaker activity waiting for the kids, and the seats and lockers assigned in four table groups — the reds, greens, blues and yellows. Tomorrow, they will make up their own names for their tables and chose a leader for each workgroup. But tonight, I will not think about these things. I will enjoy myself, watching another Bollywood movie from Netflix with Dean, and just assume everything will be okay. Because whether it is or it isn’t, there’s not much I can do about the outcome for the next 12 hours, except wait and see what it is.