Brittney's Adventures in Teaching: First day of school!

The first day of school that you are in charge is way scarier and way more fun than any first day you've ever had.

This is how I did my first day:

7:30-

· made sure all students were on the seating chart (they changed from 4:00 last night, and then again in the middle of the day)

· Made sure I had all of my papers I needed to hand out.

· Went over how the first day should go in my head.

· My awesome mentor teacher came and gave me an apple muffin (you know the giant ones from Costco)

7:50-

· Anxious/scared 7^th graders start coming into class (I tried to get them to go back out and make friends, they were way too scared to leave a room once they found it)

· Stood in the hall to help the scared 7^th graders and to hand my students the warm-up for the day

8:00-

· First period started

· I took roll(silently of course), made sure students were in correct desks

· Everyone in first period was super scared and didn’t say a word

· Went around the room and had each student pronounce their name (there are some weird ones) and they told me an answer from the warm-up. It was a small survey that had questions like what is your favorite book, TV show, song, what was the funnest thing you did this summer, what famous person would you want to have lunch with.

· Then I went over how to hand in papers

· Disclosure time. We went over both the math department and my class disclosures.

· I answered the survey questions and talked about my answers

8:45-

· End of first period

· Back into the hall to help scared/lost students and hand my students the warm-up as they walked into class

Repeat six times with a few exceptions. As the day went on students were less and less scared and more and more talkative. In a class or two we had to practice handing in papers silently a few times. Since we had to practice being quiet and there were more students and less time (Wednesdays are early outs so the last 3 classes are only 40 min) I didn’t have time to show them my answers to the survey questions.

The best part of the day was when another teacher asked who the math teacher was that the 7^th graders were talking about. In a few classes if a student said they liked something that no one else knew about if it was fun I would kind of act it out. Like one student said they would like to have lunch with Lindsay Sterling and no one knew who she was so I jumped around the room imitating Lindsay playing the violin, apparently the news of the crazy math teacher spread pretty fast and other teachers starting hearing about it. We also discussed in a class if Boy Meets World or Girl Meets World is a better show, why the Dodgers are better than the Braves, how Josh from Drake and Josh grew up to be hot, why karate is cool, all kinds of fun things.

Things I wish I knew for the first day

1. To tell the kids to write their first AND last name on their paper

2. Memorize the bell schedule (I know this will come but having to check the poster was distracting to me and my students)

3. To tell the students to write in their very best handwriting so I can read their name

4. What the freeze button on the projector remote does (this may be the coolest button on a remote ever! You can pause on the screen you want the students to see and then change what is on your screen on your computer and the projector screen doesn’t change! I’m in love with it)

5. To number the tables so they could find their seat faster

6. That 5 minutes is a long time and having 5 minutes less is a lot less you can get through

Overall I would say I had a very successful first day of teaching. I love it!

Here are a few pictures:

I'll take better ones tomorrow