Can It Be True? I'm Back?

Can it be?

I have found my way back to the computer?

I feel like I have been in the big city and got stuck on the HOV lane and zoomed right past my destination and had no way of getting back to it.

Welcome to the first few weeks of a new school year. Yes the insanity has started I am in the drivers seat for a new school year. As you might guess, I became preoccupied with preparing for the year around the time of my last blog entry. (August 11 I think.) At that time I began going to school and preparing the classroom and getting things together. In elementary school this can take a while.

Teachers contract start date is one week prior to the first day of school for students. But when there are mandatory meetings, trainings, and open house, there is precious little time left to work in your room. y the time you are at the first day you quickly find out that you will have a "First Day" for the next 5-10 school days. This is because all of your students do not come on the first day. They will straggle in and then when it appears that you have them all, the district begins to send transfers to our campus. Our campus often receives transfers from campuses that have too large of an enrollment. Because of this the teachers often have to rearrange and change because their numbers increase.

Add to all of this the two weeks of Olympic coverage and then two weeks of political conventions and the start of the football season; and quite frankly, I was pooped.

Speaking of the Olympics and the conventions, "How about the great performance by Micheal Phelps and the great speech by Sarah Palin?" Awesome job by both!

But now I'm back with a vengeance. Maybe not actual vengeance, but I'm back and it's great.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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Here We Go Again

Well, you can tell that school is getting ready to start. At least I can tell! Even though my contract start date is August 18th, I have been to school several times in order to get my classroom ready. Because of this I have recently had less time to blog.

At the end of school teachers generally have to "disassemble" their classrooms and put things away. One never can tell what might happen to things, especially if your room ends up being used for summer school or workshops.

This week I had to rearrange the tables in my room because they were used for training in another room. The tables that were returned to my room were not mine. They were the wrong size and had to be adjusted for my little ones. It actually worked out for the best though. I now have tables that are a uniform size and allows me more flexibility in arrangement. I also got an extra table and ended up making a listening center.

In addition to the extra time at school I have been having to get my materials ready. And yes, for a kindergarten teacher that means a lot of coloring, cutting, and laminating; and then more cutting. After all of this then I have to go back to school and put away, arrange some more, decorate the room, and generally try to get as much done as possible.....Because, Meet the Teacher Night is on August 19th. That's right, the second day back. So that means that I will need to get my roster as quick as I can (normally the Thursday or Friday before we report for work) so that I can prepare for the parent's.

And so begins another race that lasts for 36 weeks; some long some short, but all of them fulfilling.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

We're BACK!!!!

The first day back from the holidays is always a challenge for kindergarten students. They have to adjust to the school schedule and the school routine again. Half my class told me they were sleepy at 9:30 AM. "Sorry! We can't go to sleep. We're here and we have a lot to do. " Lunchtime is at 10:50 AM and then recess. It rained a lot early yesterday morning. It left the ground very wet. We couldn't go outside for recess. We had to go to the room instead. Someone had to cry. Not me, one of the students. Kindergarten lives for recess; even after two weeks of holidays. Rest time is at 1:00 PM after Music. By 1:30 PM 4 students were asleep and the rest said they were hungry. "I know! We'll have a snack after Social Studies."

The teachers also have to adjust to the school schedule and routine. The biggest challenge is adjusting your body to the restroom opportunities. Or actually the lack of restroom opportunities. Don't stand in front of the restroom doors after the students are gone. I am certain the water pressure in Waco drops drastically at school dismissal time. Fortunately dismissal times are staggered between elementary, middle, and high school.

Our campus uses the Voyager Expanded Learning Universal Literacy System for English/Language Arts in the early grades. One of the components of the system provides for highly structured and scripted lessons. In order to prepare for the daily lessons the teacher has to gather materials each afternoon for the next days lesson. I didn't remember if I had prepared for the lesson before I went home for the holidays. As soon as I got to school Tuesday morning I grabbed my teacher's guide and looked at the lesson and my materials. It didn't look as if I prepared so I set about to gather and organize. I finished and felt good. Later, I discovered I looked at the Wrong page in the guide and unknowingly prepared for next Monday by mistake. OOPS! I had already prepared for the lesson before I left for the holidays. Now what is it they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men?

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.