Today was the first day of my 4th year of teaching. Wow. I don't know where the years have gone. It's crazy to think that yesterday was the 4th time I attended 7th grade day and helped my little 7th graders feel comfortable at school.
This year will be full of new experiences. I am still teaching four Resource Learning classes, but I am only teaching one Writing Skills class and I am teaching a co-taught Math 7 class. I'm most nervous about the math class. I have never taught math, and this is a general education math class. Yikes. I think I could teach a math class (that is not the nerve-racking part), but learning to coordinate and cooperate with another teacher can be difficult. The math teacher I am co-teaching with taught special ed for 17 years and has been teaching general ed for 10 years. He has a LOT of experience. Still, we have different perspectives on some things and we have different teaching styles. This will be an interesting experience for sure. I really like him though. Today was our first day really teaching a class "together" (we haven't quite figured out how we will run the class together) and he made me laugh out loud a couple of times. The kids seem to like him. :)
I'm down from two Writing Skills classes to one. That means I have more students in my one Writing Skills class. Writing is such a critical skill. I actually love teaching writing, but writing is hard for these kids and they need some serious intervention and the more help in the class, the better. So, I'm a little concerned about the larger class size, but I should have an aide. I just need to figure out a system that differentiates instruction so that all students can get the support they need.
I will also be conducting research for my thesis this semester. Fortunately it will be conducted at my school, so I don't have to worry about travel. I'm really excited for my research, but I have not figured out all of the details yet, and I'm supposed to begin research in about two weeks. It looks like I have my work cut out for me!
FUNNY MOMENTS THUS FAR:
- One little 7th grader (I actually had his brother a couple of years ago) is in a couple of my classes along with my wolf pack. In wolf pack today, he raised his hand and said, "Ms. Damron - can you tell the kids around me to stop making me so tired?" That's not word-for-word, but it was so random. This kid will be full of stories. Let me tell you.
- Another girl in my wolf pack asked me if I knew a female student named XXX. I said yes, I had her a couple of years ago. She replied, "She's my sister. And she didn't like you very much." I paused when she said that she was her sister, and this student took that to mean that I didn't particularly like this student either. It's not that I didn't like this previous student, but she was a bit complainy, so that is part of the reason we didn't get a long. I hope rumors aren't being spread about how I feel about this student. Yikes.
- I gave my students a "True/False Quiz About Ms. Damron" worksheet and then had them write three T/F questions about themselves on the back. One student (who was wearing glasses), wrote, "I don't wear glasses." That was the only question he could come up with. I gave him the look and said, "Come on! You can do better than that." He said, "I don't know!" I really didn't even know what to say after that. Another student wrote some interesting facts: "T/F - I have been to Mars." and "T/F I participated in World War III." Of course.
Those are just the beginnings. Ms. Damron's classroom has begun full-throttle again! Bring on a good year. :)
-Ms. Damron-
