Week 1

Somehow I managed to get through the first week of classes. It felt a lot like this. I did keep all my plates spinning! Overall, it went quite well. I really did end each day feeling like it had been a good day.

My English II classes are a breeze. The hardest part is going to be not letting myself become complacent. I already have my units sequenced for the year (depending on what changes we make for research) and my lessons through to winter break. I've only got two sections, the classes are small (both under 25, at least this week) PLUS each class has a student aide. (Right now my challenge is going to be finding enough for them to do.)

Journalism, however, is a different story.

The most important thing I learned about this week is that I have no clue what I'm doing in my Journalism classes. I need to spend a good bit of time probably tomorrow working on my pacing for those courses. JRL II needs to start pounding away at Issue 1 while somehow still keeping the first yearbook deadline simmering on the back burner. That reminds me - I need to set up their logins on the publishing site so they can get started with page assignments and photo uploads.

I have my unit sequence for JRL I - I just need to develop lessons more thoroughly. Now that I actually HAVE an academic class I need to make sure I use my in-class time effectively. I'm scared because I don't know how to do that. I really would like to have it be a photography workshop, but that means TAKING photos and I can't just send them out. I think once we get ideas about photo composition we're going to need to go on location all together. The catch is that they're all pretty big groups, so I'm going to need to figure out how to manage that. There's no WAY we can all go to someone's classroom and take photos because there are so many of us that it'd be a total disruption. The gym works. We could also go outside with ROTC on PT days. Or possibly cover inspection once they get their uniforms. And of course before we start using people as subjects we can work with still life and landscapes.

I wonder if the art teacher would let us invade her room... her classes are huge but so is the room, and she was also really excited about the photography course. We would both have to stress to our classes that my students are ONLY there to observe - they are NOT to speak to any of the art students (even if someone talks to them).

We'll need to sell at lunch during the week that spans August and September. That means that next week I need to have them contact their third-block teachers to ask what (if any) parts of class they can miss on which days. Scheduling that is going to be a pain.

Our new photography company will be coming by on Monday to meet with seniors. I wonder if I can sit down with them to schedule our sports candids now that we have schedules for fall. I sure hope so.

I'll probably be able to focus better if I actually go to the school after lunch tomorrow. Indian restaurant, yay! Thing is, though, it's a half-hour drive and that's time and gas money I'd rather not spend. But I think the payoff in terms of how much I can get done might be worth it. Might...

Overall, things are looking good. If I can set things up for Journalism over the weekend, it looks like this year is going to be absolutely stellar.

Unimportant note: What I thought was a large orange seems to have been a small grapefruit. Interesting. And also very juicy. Yum!

Still hungry, though. Time to go re-raid the fridge!