My first day back was actually pretty good. I didn't even let tears fall when I left! (I did, however, hold and cry over Caleb for a long time before I put him to bed last night...he was very concerned about me!) There are several teachers who are leaving little ones at home, so we bonded and shared pictures. :)
Some positive notes from the day:
*I am very excited about our new and improved team this year. I think we will all work together really well, and I like our new teacher a lot. I'm hoping that a more cohesive team will help me to keep this positive attitude I've been trying to have!
* I heard a really inspiring speech today at our opening meeting and then watched this awesome video about a guy who runs marathons while pushing his son who has cerebral paulsy (sp?) I felt very fresh and motivated when I left the auditorium! (sometimes those meetings can be pretty dry, so this was a nice change!)
* I got my class lists (yes I said LISTS, because I basically have 3 different classes...oy!) and they weren't quite as big as we'd been expecting. I have 23 in HR/Science, 27 in reading (not so horrible...they are Honors), and 20 in math. We were expecting at least 28 across the board, so it's not so bad.
* One of my students from last year got the highest reading/LA MSA score in the school (across grade levels)!!! He is an incredible writer and an extremely abstract thinker, but really needed to be pushed a lot to reach his potential. I'm so excited that he proved to everyone else what I already knew. I'm just really proud of him.
* I have already thought of 2 people who could probably use a friend this year. One is an adult and the other is a student, but I'm hoping that God will give me opportunities to be a good friend to them both in different ways.
* I have revamped my homework policy in response to new grading policies that I'm not overly fond of. I've decided that HW will not count for a grade, but is still mandatory. If you don't do it, you do it for catch-up. If you do it, you get tickets (to buy things out of my treasure box). Honestly, tickets mean more to kids than grades anyway, so I'm hoping this will work. I don't want to get into the whole grading policy issues, but I think that this is the most fair way to do it.
All in all, a good day! Of course, tomorrow I will be in meetings allllllllll day and not even really with my team at all. Hopefully it will be fairly painless! :)
Some positive notes from the day:
*I am very excited about our new and improved team this year. I think we will all work together really well, and I like our new teacher a lot. I'm hoping that a more cohesive team will help me to keep this positive attitude I've been trying to have!
* I heard a really inspiring speech today at our opening meeting and then watched this awesome video about a guy who runs marathons while pushing his son who has cerebral paulsy (sp?) I felt very fresh and motivated when I left the auditorium! (sometimes those meetings can be pretty dry, so this was a nice change!)
* I got my class lists (yes I said LISTS, because I basically have 3 different classes...oy!) and they weren't quite as big as we'd been expecting. I have 23 in HR/Science, 27 in reading (not so horrible...they are Honors), and 20 in math. We were expecting at least 28 across the board, so it's not so bad.
* One of my students from last year got the highest reading/LA MSA score in the school (across grade levels)!!! He is an incredible writer and an extremely abstract thinker, but really needed to be pushed a lot to reach his potential. I'm so excited that he proved to everyone else what I already knew. I'm just really proud of him.
* I have already thought of 2 people who could probably use a friend this year. One is an adult and the other is a student, but I'm hoping that God will give me opportunities to be a good friend to them both in different ways.
* I have revamped my homework policy in response to new grading policies that I'm not overly fond of. I've decided that HW will not count for a grade, but is still mandatory. If you don't do it, you do it for catch-up. If you do it, you get tickets (to buy things out of my treasure box). Honestly, tickets mean more to kids than grades anyway, so I'm hoping this will work. I don't want to get into the whole grading policy issues, but I think that this is the most fair way to do it.
All in all, a good day! Of course, tomorrow I will be in meetings allllllllll day and not even really with my team at all. Hopefully it will be fairly painless! :)
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