Day 1 - Pupil Free Day

I feel I need to keep track of my teaching experience this year. Some entries will be long and some short. Some days the words will be of joy and love and success and some days the words will be of exhaustion, failure and frustration. 

Today:  Sept. 8, 2009

I arrived at school before 7:00a.m. It took me just 35 minutes to travel from Van Nuys to Watts. Woo Hoo! My classroom was in tact and I was overwhelmed again by Ariella's artistry. The room is full of bright colors. (pictures to come) I have a colorful rug under my desk, a fluffy green dorm chair, bright orange and blue bulletin boards, posters of verbs, adjective, descriptive words and more adorn the peeling beige walls. I have this awesome bookshelf looking border above my white board as well. I also have one board that has quotes written on word strips as the border. All is well.

7:50 a.m. I am off to the library for 4 hours of meetings. It turns out the school is just transitioning to Small Learning Communities (SLCs) and so much is in flux. I do receive a list of the SLCs and teams. I am the English teacher for the 7th Grade Team in the Magnet SLC. Apparently the Magnet does have fewer discipline problems. (wait and see) My team consists of a Math Teacher (my next door neighbor), a science teacher (located in the brand new actually equipped science labs) and a Social Studies teacher who has not been hired yet. We are told our students are bright and can achieve if we just work hard and believe. 

My school is a Partnership for L.A. Schools school. You know, one of the mayor's schools. We are the 2nd lowest performing school in the district. Last year was a stabilizing year where they dealt mainly with behavior, attendance and general mass roaming on the campus. It is always a good first step to get the students into the classroom. Now we will be working on consistency and interdisciplinary teaching. Can we say, "preaching to the choir."  

And yet, I have no class rosters until tomorrow. I have no idea which period is my conference period. We don't have nutrition. Our students do wear uniforms. I have planned for the first week. Today I went to the bookstore to buy books I will be reading to my students. I did fall asleep last night before 10 and slept nearly 8 hours last night. I am ready, or I will be once I download President Obama's speech, find one more quote, type up my lesson plan, complete the self inventory (so I can make copies tomorrow) for Thursday's lesson, pack my lunch and check off the rest of my to do list. 

Please know, I am so happy to have this job. When I went into teaching I wanted to be where I could do the most good. It seems I was right all along. When I went on interviews all this summer and didn't get job after job, I told myself that was because somewhere there were students who needed me more. 

I close with a quote: "I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book." --Coolio