But truth was, I had soooo many questions, and I was excited to learn the answers to them. What is it like setting up a classroom? How much can we prepare for before we meet our students? What do we teach students, especially kindergartners who haven’t been to school before, in the first couple weeks? How do we plan to set procedures and expectations in the classroom? Who are these students that are going to walk in bright and early on the first day?? And that wasn’t even all of my questions. Like I said, I had SO. Many.
In Hillsborough county, teachers get 6 days for teacher planning, Monday-Monday. My mentor had stayed in her classroom to teach VPK, so there wasn’t much furniture that needed to be moved, or things that had to be organized. Although I would’ve liked to help with this, I’m not the strongest person, so maybe it’s best that it was already done! This left us lots of time to plan and prepare for the first nine weeks. This meant lots of copies, stapling, and writing names everywhere. Let’s just say I learned quickly how important it is to be fully stocked on paper, staples, and sharpies for teacher planning! But this also left a lot of time for me to review resources. Because our school has an extended hour for extra reading time, a lot of planning is focused on reading instruction. Two resources that my mentor showed me she used was The First 20 Days lessons, and Making Meaning. These explain step-by-step how to set up expectations and procedures for teaching reading, and where to even begin teaching their young minds.
Along with individual and team planning, there were also faculty meetings. Each day, the faculty meeting covered a different topic, or aspect, of the school. There were of course the typical beginning of the year meetings that went over procedures, and need-to-know’s for this year. As residents, we were able to participate in the New Teacher meeting, which was really cool for a few reasons. We weren’t just being looked at as “the interns.” We were being treated equally with the teachers, and feeling like a part of the school community. But as interns, we were able to get a glimpse into what it’s going to be like as a new teacher one day really soon. So exciting! But the most thrilling meeting was that first meeting back on Monday morning when we were told about the changes that were going to be made this year. The overarching theme for this year is “Changing the Game.” The site that I intern at is a Title 1/Renaissance school. Statistically, schools like ours do not always have the highest test scores and student promotion rate. But luckily, our administration did not want to be a part of that statistic, and neither did the teachers! By changing the game—bringing in more positivity, encouragement, and collaboration amongst the entire school—our vision is to break free of that statistic. The excitement among the teachers and faculty was contagious! People were dancing on chairs and tables, and shouting with enthusiasm! The teachers were excited to teach—and when the teachers are excited to teach, the students will be excited to learn. What better way to get the year off on the right foot?!
By the end of the week I was exhausted. My brain was fried. I probably hit the snooze button one more time than I should have. But, I was still just as excited as I was on Monday—for a different reason. I couldn’t wait to meet my new students Tuesday morning and have a great year teaching Kindergarten :)