My first week of teaching went great. I introduced myself to my students, telling them a significant portion of my life story to build rapport, and then gave them the necessary classroom management procedures.
It’s nice being in a school with indoor hallways – meaning air conditioning everywhere I go (unless I choose to go outside).
It’s also nice to walk into a room with my own name on it :).
After debating how to set up the room I settled for a side-by-side approach instead of the desks all facing the front (which would be boring to me and not leave a lot of walking space).
Like all other teachers, it’s absolutely essential to write the agenda on the board. Of course I start talking about U.S History with a… Native American Gallery walk.
I have students do a “Tweet of the Day” upon entering my class everyday. It’s essentially a warm-up, but I give them the opportunity of course to use hashtags.
My first “three-day-weekend” alone was Vegas was kind of rough, mostly because I’m used to being surrounded by all my friends in Garden Grove (or San Diego). My friend came down to visit and we had some fun eating foods, exploring the Strip, and seeing skrillex. Being able to figure out what to do with my newly acquired free time though was rough – I settled for reading, writing, and of course blogging. Realistically, I can’t see myself staying in Vegas that long. The weather is way too hot and I don’t yet have much of a support system here yet. That can change depending on what happens in the next few months as I get more accustomed to living on my own.
My second week started off rather boringly with a staff development day (Tuesday), where nobody paid attention. The rest of the week was spent explaining how to organize notebooks in class (COMPOSITION books!), and going over European exploration. I can’t wait to get to the good stuff – the 13 colonies and the AMERICAN REVOLUTION. <24.
