Back to School

Some people say teachers are lucky because we get the whole summer off from work (summer was only 2 months, not 3 like most non-teachers think). Well having the summers off is a perk, but if I had to spend a entire year around 12 and 13 year old students, then I would have to switch professions. Fortunately, I had a really great summer! I have travled, cooked, rested, shopped, swam, and been lazy. Unfortunately I am now back to school.

My first couple of weeks at school have not been too bad. The first week back to school involved getting my classroom ready, attending meetings, sorting paper work, and figuring out what I am going to do this year. The students' first day was August 10th.

This year is only my second year of teaching. I teach 7th grade math, and I have been reading up on how to make my year better. The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary Wong and Shouting Won't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate are two books that have really helped me start this year off in the right direction. Things are already easier than last year. My main problem now is how many students I have in my classroom! I'm already 3 weeks in, and I only have about 25% of their names memorized. Last year I had about 115 students total. My biggest class was about 23 students. This year I have close to 160 total, and my biggest class is 35 students. It took me one whole Sunday afternoon to just grade all of my students' papers! However, my students this year are more pleasant than my previous group. . Hopefully this year will be a much happier year in my classroom. One thing that makes me happier in my class already is my Keurig Coffee maker. I can now make a really good cup of coffee at any time during the day, and this always makes me happy! I just hope I will come home before 5:00 every afternoon! Not every teacher leaves at 3:15 (this is another myth believed by non-teachers).

Here are a few pictures of my classroom. I am in the same room as last year, but I made a few changes from last year.