SO. Remember how last time I was bemoaning our sad lack of airflow knowledge? WELL! Today it was 99 degrees out, and we successfully kept the house cool without ever turning on the air! We kept the windows open all night (with fans) to suck in some nice, 65-degree night air, and then as soon as we got up we shut all the windows and kept the doors shut as much as possible. Lo and behold, it worked! Still pretty comfortable (especially if you wear tanktops and run a fan) at 7:30, and soon we'll have some new night air to start the process all over again. Hooray for beating the heat!
In other news, today was the first day my school was in operation, although I did not have my kids today. Since my middle school is 7th and 8th grade, they decided to have an orientation day just for the new "sevvies" to find their way around. So today we had kids, which was really fun, but not mine, which kinda stunk but that's ok. It was actually pretty fun because they paired us 8th grade folks with a 7th grade teacher and we just shadowed them and helped them out with running errands, having some "grown up" conversations, kid corralling, and, of course, LOCKER LESSONS! It's really funny to see the kids on their first day of middle school and realize how many things I didn't know in 7th grade. Here are some examples:
THINGS 7TH GRADERS DON'T KNOW:
1. How to operate a simple rotary combination lock. (Although I will say a few figured it out quickly.)
2. That one hour of homework a night is not a lot.
3. How to get up out of a desk whose chair is attached. (This was HILARIOUS. We had lessons.)
Seriously. That last one was incredibly amusing. I ended up modeling and having practice with two different classes, just because they were struggling so much at the beginning of the day. I thought someone was going to trip and injure themselves. They kept trying to push their chairs back like they would in an unattached chair and they looked soooo confused when their desks came with them. It was ADORABLE -- and it made me miss my 7th graders from student teaching. *sniff sniff*
So the "ickle sevvies" were fun today -- it was nice just to have some kids in the building -- but I think my favorite part of teaching here so far is still the awesome collaboration, support, and cohesiveness of the English department. Seriously, I can already tell that I would not make it through this school year if I didn't have Irene and Melody (the "mommas" of the LA teachers) to show me what's what. I love that we collaborate on what we're doing all the time, because that way we're making sure that our kids have similar lessons that give them all the same solid base knowledge that they need to succeed in high school. (Plus this way we get tried and true experience plus my crazy greenhorn ideas, which is a fun mix!) So I'm scared for Monday (the day when I first have my 8th graders), but I also know that I'm gonna make it through the year, because with a team like this I can't fail. =)
In other other news, I'm excited because in addition to my teaching I agreed to be the second co-sponsor of Stuco (student council) here at West. Not only is it not a huge time commitment, which is nice since it's my first year, but the other advisor and I have some cool ideas about what sorts of events and projects the kids might want to work on this year. I'm really excited -- I think it's the perfect way to start dipping my toes into extracurricular involvement at school.
Well, that about wraps it up for news for the moment... plus I have lesson plans to write! So I'm gonna go work, and I will catch you all on the flip side! Don't be a stranger!
~Rebekah
No comments:
Post a Comment