Second Day

This morning I was even more tired than yesterday.

The nerves are all gone. I've got a handful or two of names in each class already.

One class had time to do the entire theme activity (do a mental scavenger hunt, try to figure out the theme of the room, share with a partner, share with the class, theme is "expect excellence", write about what excellence means to you, share with class), practice the call and response, and move into how the class rules will help everyone be their best. Another class got to start theme but not finish it. The first class didn't get to at all, because it took the whole period to collect homework and start the map activity.

The middle class did not understand that I really meant it when I told them to enter silently, immediately sit down and get to work, silently. So three times I sent them back to line up outside the door and lectured them about the many things we have to do, and the waste of time it is for me to wait for them to do their job. The third time they did it, and after the theme stuff, they were so with me, enjoying themselves, speaking up, and I really felt some affection for them.

The last class was again chatty during class. So I introduced the quiet signal and the noise chart and the class points. I put up the numbers on the board and erased the 5 and 4 since I'd had to stop two times already. After that, though, they were great. They kept their eyes out for the quiet signal, and when I had them do pair talking, they did it perfectly. The silent activities they did well, and when their peers were speaking, the whole room was respectfully listening quietly. I praised them several times for doing well and at the end of the period said that I hope tomorrow we'll stay at 5 points.

My first class again did well. They seem to be a friendly and alert lot, eager to work hard and please the teacher.

Tomorrow we'll go over the daily procedures, finish theme, rules and consequences,

Yesterday the students received the newsletter, which included my email address and AIM name. The same evening, two students IM'd me! One boy, one girl said hi. I thought that was pretty cool.

This afternoon I chatted with another student from last year, and she also volunteered to put the newbies in their place if they gave me any trouble. Then she asked if I gave them homework. My reply: "silly goose, have you ever MET me? you should know the answer to that!" Her reply: "that was a pointless question. of course you gave them homework." Heh.

A bit ago, the new girl from yesterday IM'd me again to say hi and ask me random questions like do I have myspace, what is my favorite song, how long is the homework assignment, and about other teachers. All her chatspeak is like this: "who do u think is da meanest man teacher in da skool" Not even a question mark to appease the punctuation gods! Hoo boy.

Once again I was all hyped up at the end of the day, but soon that faded and the full-body fatigue came back. On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store and gobbled a big meal when I got back. After watching some recorded tv (have I mentioned lately how IN LURVE I am with my DVR?!), I just had to close my eyes and nap. AT SIX PM.

Around seven I forced myself up, but I'm not feeling much more rested. Last night I went to bed at 10.30, exhausted in body but in mind things were still churning. Eventually I slept, dreaming anxiously of having to move all my things in less than a week with no notice. I hope to go to bed at a decent time and actually sleep better. Wish me luck.