Friday, August 10, 2007

First day

Today was my fist day of school. I set three alarms, I was not going to be rushed this morning. School starts at 7:45 and I have hall duty begging at 7:10, so everything starts a little earlier than Bellingham. Today was a half-day and lasted from 7:45 until 12:30. The buses were about half an hour late, so after packing up and getting ready to leave I had to refocus the students for another half an hour before they left. This was the only real struggle in the day. We were the first group to have lunch at 9:30! Served were cheese burgers, jo jos, and beans, and everyone ate hot lunch, every single student. Fortunately this is not the normal lunch time. I spent the day with my core class, which I will be meeting with first thing every morning. The class is full of bright and excited young minds. Of the class, twelve students out of fifteen were present, what small class sizes, yes! My schedule for the coming weeks is shaping up. There was some confusion about one section of Health that I will be teaching and upon further investigation one of my five classes a day will not be in 5th grade, but kindergarten health. This adds some additional excitement to the year. Anybody have any tips for teaching kindergarten? Also, I will have more planning time for the next week and a half before the kindergarten students begin their year. So, all in all, the day was a little chaotic, but it went as smooth as possible. It is going to be a good year at Rosenwald.

Check out this cicada that I found on a walk this evening. It's huge. I hear they are the loudest sounding insect in the world and can also live to be up to 17 years old are are not considered a pest. Right now it's hanging out with me on my computer speaker. It's a little slow. I think it might have got dowsed by the bug truck that sprays the neighborhood ever so often.

for more about these facinating creatures check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

1 comment:

Alicia Smith said...

OOO Kindergarten will be so much fun for you! They are always so eager to learn and play! What exactly are you teaching them about health? I assume something about the senses? You could do sensory activities like stations, different fabrics etc...Also I have heard foss has a really cool kindergarten fabrics unit.

My class really enjoyed doing seed experiments, planting seeds and observing their growth. If you need any plant materials, let me know, I have tons, Also sing lots and lots of songs! They love it! And it's such an easy way to introduce concepts and discussions on concepts. Good Luck! Let me know if you want some more Kindergarten ideas.