My first day at school --- Tuesday

My first day went off without too much of a hitch.  I was on time, well rested, and as positive and enthusiastic as my unexpressive self could muster.  My students seemed generally interested to get to know me and have me be a part of their classroom.  I could not ask for a better first placement.  Lower Dauphin is a great school.  Most of the graduating class attends college and on the whole, the students generally care about their grades.  The largest class size I have encounterd so far is 20.  All the classrooms are equipped with smart boards.  My teacher is open to all of my questions and offers advice consistently.  He is the head of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Lower Dauphin.  I look forward to gleaning advice from him regarding how to deal with student questions and crisises.  We have our first meeting on Thursday. 

There was a big stir in the beginning of the day regarding the recent return of the PSSA test scores.  The PSSA will soon become the Keystone exams, which will account for 33% of teacher grades.  My teacher and I selected a student for my impact on student learning paper partly based on these test scores.

The nerves that I have been dealing with this semester were assauged by (1) my teacher making sure to introduce me at every class, (2) the fact that I was able to just sit back and observe and not really be required to teach yet, (3) no longer being amongst a group of my peers.

My teacher formats his lesson plans according to EATS.  He pairs his students into groups randomly.  He sits at a student desk.  He has a marker in hand during lessons.  He is extremely well organized, and so is everyone else in this district (like Tria organized for real). 

Students made several slanderous comments throughout the day.  My teacher addressed this by stating that the word was offensive and that he was personally offended. 

Getting to know the hundreds of student names and faculty is really important...I've made copies of  my teacher's seating charts and tried to write little notes, like Chicago, or Hockey, or Hard Worker, for myself to try to differentiate.  I would love to have a sort of Guess Who board with all of their names flipped up for every class.