Thursday, August 13, 2009

Squeezing out the remaining moments...

I'm headed into the last three days of my "summer vacation", and I'm planning to enjoy them as much as I possibly can!

Yesterday I was able to spend some time in my classroom exploring all the nooks and crannies. I met with my mentor, another teacher in my department who will help me get orientated to the school. She answered a lot of my questions about what to expect in the first few weeks at the school, showed me around the building (sweet!) and introduced me to a few other teachers and auxiliary staff. I even though it was only a few hours, I felt relief in just knowing some additional things that were nagging on me. I like to have a good idea in advance of what is around the corner, especially when it comes to my job and my expected commitments.

I also got my schedule, and a list of my classes! What I gain in planning time (compared to what I've had), I lose in the size of my classes. They are larger than I'm used to. It could be a big change from the smaller classes I've had in the past -- some are almost twice as big as my larger classes in St. Laurent! My planning period is at the end of the day, which will be nice. And did I mention my classroom? It's loaded with all the bells and whistles!

I attended a Smartboard session yesterday afternoon, which was on my personal "to do" list since I found out all the classrooms have one. What an amazing teaching tool this is. I doubt I'll be able to master it all in my first year, but I am bound and determined to try! I played around with the board again today and I can't wait to try planning lessons with it.

I brought my mother into the school today because I wanted her help moving some furniture around, and she wanted to take pictures to take home with her. (Yes, there are pictures on the way!) We spent about an hour trying to determine the best layout of the room. We moved desks, and moved desks, and moved a few more desks. The final layout seems like the most optimal -- I hope. I suppose I'll find out in the first few weeks of school if it will work or not!

My parents wanted to take my local advisor, Alvin, and his family out to dinner tonight as a way of thanking them for their support here in NC. We had a really nice visit. They are a great family and I know that I will enjoy getting to know them and work with Alvin over the next year.

It's been raining on and off for the last couple of days, which makes the non-rain periods really really humid. But it isn't as got here as it was earlier in the week -- about 29 C. The flash flood warning we had two days ago didn't amount to much in this community, but other areas were slightly affected by the heavy rainfall. They say we've got a few more weeks of summer weather before the temperatures start to drop more.

Tomorrow is a day off. School is closed and we're not expected to attend any meetings. Hallelujah! I think we are going to go into Fayetteville (about 45 minutes away) again and see what's to offer there.

Will post more tomorrow! Hopefully some pictures, too!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

oooo! you have a smartboard! *is jealous* how exciting! i'm sure you will be able to master it! you're smart!

ok, enough of this Celsius tempature measuremtns...where are you getting them anyway? everything in the US is done in F. i have no idea how hot it is there...29 is really really cold to me :P

excited to see room pictrues!