Rearranging Furniture Solves Everything

Time is flying. Already 4 weeks into the new school year. Four weeks into my 2nd year of teaching. I have to say, so far, it's turning out very different from last year. For example, this year I've come home feeling cruddy about life maybe once or twice. Last year, I came home feeling GOOD about life maybe once or twice. I have a few rotten students, of course, but I don't have a dozen of them in one class. I have an unbelievably LOUD class of 34 7th graders, but they're a very happy loud. It's hard to get angry at them. Hard to get angry, but easy to shout. Hey, if I don't, they'd never hear me!!

So anyway. Here's a couple things about this year that I find really wonderful...

1. My class schedule. I have 1st period prep AGAIN, but I have 2 Exploring Tech classes back to back, then 2 keyboarding classes in a different classroom, and then CTE for 6th and 7th periods. I love having it broken up like that; makes the day go faster. And after 7th period, I don't have to fight a tidal wave of kids to get back to my classroom (I had keyboarding 7th period last year).

2. I have C Lunch this year. That means I don't have to go to lunch in the middle of 5th period, like I did last year. Now I go AFTER 5th, and then there's only 2 more periods. It's awesome!

3. I know a lot of my kids this year, because I had them as 7th graders in CTE. It's so wonderful not having as many names and faces to learn! I know nearly all of my 163 students. Those 7th grade girls all look the same to me...

4. I rearranged my classroom and set up a desk right up front to permanently hold my projector and my document camera. And now the front of the classroom is where the projector screen is. It's a much smoother set up than I had last year, and it's working out very well.



5. There is only one group of kids that remember the teacher I replaced. If there's one thing I absolutely cannot stand, it's the kids comparing me to this guy. Next year will be the best--the kids will be all mine.

6. This year, all middle schools in my district have to have 2 hours of collaboration time every Friday. We teachers come in at 7:30 and "collaborate" for 2 hours, and then school actually starts at 9:55. I hate collaborating because I think it's a waste of time and I'm still not sure what we're supposed to collaborate about--I mean, I'm the only Tech teacher. Steve's the only Woods teacher. Etc. I DO like having short periods on Fridays. Makes the day more special.

Last week was "Hello" week. Meaning, we had dress-up days and had silly get-to-know you activities in TA. On Thursday, the kids had to make a life-size drawing of a person that represented the entire class--they all took turns drawing something on him to represent themselves. Towards the end, it got a little out of control, and our guy ended up with dreds and 5 kinds of facial hair. And I had to give him purple poster-board pants because one of my kids was inappropriate. Every TA class made one of these posters, and the SBOs (student body officers) went around and voted for their favorite. Somehow, our not-even-close-to-handsome devil took 2nd place, and my kids and I got dum dums. Hm. Well, there's no accounting for taste, I guess.

Those weird things hanging from his hands are glowsticks on strings. I guess it's a new fad--to run around twirling them around like nunchaku. Weeeeeird. The other fad is to wander around the hallway playing a ukulele and singing. Apparently.

Besides that little activity, we're quite busy in my classes. My tech kids made posters promoting things like getting to class on time, standing in straight lines, and keeping the classroom clean. We voted on favorites today, and the winners will be granted a place of honor on the wall. I didn't even have to interfere with the voting to make sure certain posters won! My kids know quality when they see it (usually):


In CTE, we're making air rockets. We just finished today with painting and gluing on fins and stuff. Monday and Tuesday were chaotic disasters, but today I thought to bribe them for helping clean up. My room has never been so spotless after a CTE work day. :)

All in all, the year is looking pretty good. I guess the biggest difference I'm seeing between year 1 and 2 is that I can actually, FINALLY, say that I love my job. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Seriously.