Today was a much needed day off. Between last minute hirings (day before school starts), taking over as the department head, adding five new teachers to the English department, coaching cross country, advising student council, and, you know, teaching, I've been on the verge of a nervous breakdown. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. However, it has been a challenging two weeks.
It's also been a great learning experience.
I can honestly say that reflective practice has helped me to grow as an educator. While I've certainly had to make adjustments to my teaching, I've been able to avoid some pitfalls based on previous experiences. Friday marked the first go with stations. Prior to Friday, I created the groups, the group leaders, and had everything planned out in writing. Did things go wrong? Of course. I teach 9th graders, after all. However, contrary to the past, I didn't flip out and get overly anxious when things didn't go quite as planned. I made notes about things that could go better, about things that went better than expected, and minor tweaking that needed to take place.
The most important part of the past week and a half has been establishing procedures. I cannot emphasize it enough! You can't expect to get anything done in a classroom if students don't know what's expected of them. Posting the procedures and expectations has been critical, as has modeling what I expect students to do.
I'm happy with the start to the school year, but I know we have a lot of work to do. I'm excited about this group of students, and I have a feeling we're going to have an absolutely amazing year.
