Whether/Weather
In one week, I will really be a teacher. I will be a first grade teacher with 23 students, several of whom have names that (according to the rules of phonics) don't exist. Saturday and today were new teacher orientation, and the other four days this week will be professional development/in service days.
I think I will meet my assistant teacher tomorrow. She's been at the school at least three years. I know this because I found a 2003/2004 teacher handbook and she was listed as one of the assistants. Tomorrow I am going to dress my oldest, wear my hair up. W-- suggested glasses. It's an idea but I'm not sure I want to go that far. I'm worried that she will look at me and decide that she will need to run the classroom. Tomorrow I need to break out professional, assertive Jessica. Usually that Jessica takes a little while to enter the scene, but she is going to be wrenched from behind "restaurant voice" Jessica onto center stage tomorrow, or risk being steamrolled into the ground.
It will be good practice, because I will need to "be the teacher" in my classroom. My CS repeated that several times this summer: be the teacher. I take this to mean that I need to act the part until I am the part. I'm not the part yet, and that is terrifying. But then again, how could I be it yet? The word teacher only takes on meaning if there are students to be taught.
So far, I am overwhelmed, and I haven't even done very much. My management plan, which I spoke of knowingly to another first year teacher today, is really only a shimmery concept in my mind. I keep trying to nail down the details and waffling on things. One of the main problems is that my school has a pacing guide and a daily schedule that I will need to follow and I haven't gotten either one of those things yet. I want to make a long term plan, but I can't, because I don't have the pacing guide and I have no idea how comprehensive it will be. I also don't know my students' current skill levels yet, although I do know I need to teach them first grade concepts regardless. Once I get those two documents, however, I have no excuse for not nailing down everything.
I'm reminded of a character from the The Phantom Tollbooth that Milo meets as he enters the land of Expectations.
"I'm the Whether Man, not the Weather Man, for
after all, it's more important to know whether there
will be weather than what the weather will be."
That is the stage that I'm in: Expectations. I need to know the whether before I can determine the weather. To but it another way, I need to know if and when I will be teaching homophones before I make a list of homophones to teach.
Speaking of weather, it is very hot in Mississippi. One might say muggy. Nineties. Not as bad as I thought it would be, though, because there is air conditioning everywhere. I've been setting up my room and I want to make it cozy but cozy doesn't really fly here. Cozy is for cold climates. Oh, well...
I think I will meet my assistant teacher tomorrow. She's been at the school at least three years. I know this because I found a 2003/2004 teacher handbook and she was listed as one of the assistants. Tomorrow I am going to dress my oldest, wear my hair up. W-- suggested glasses. It's an idea but I'm not sure I want to go that far. I'm worried that she will look at me and decide that she will need to run the classroom. Tomorrow I need to break out professional, assertive Jessica. Usually that Jessica takes a little while to enter the scene, but she is going to be wrenched from behind "restaurant voice" Jessica onto center stage tomorrow, or risk being steamrolled into the ground.
It will be good practice, because I will need to "be the teacher" in my classroom. My CS repeated that several times this summer: be the teacher. I take this to mean that I need to act the part until I am the part. I'm not the part yet, and that is terrifying. But then again, how could I be it yet? The word teacher only takes on meaning if there are students to be taught.
So far, I am overwhelmed, and I haven't even done very much. My management plan, which I spoke of knowingly to another first year teacher today, is really only a shimmery concept in my mind. I keep trying to nail down the details and waffling on things. One of the main problems is that my school has a pacing guide and a daily schedule that I will need to follow and I haven't gotten either one of those things yet. I want to make a long term plan, but I can't, because I don't have the pacing guide and I have no idea how comprehensive it will be. I also don't know my students' current skill levels yet, although I do know I need to teach them first grade concepts regardless. Once I get those two documents, however, I have no excuse for not nailing down everything.
I'm reminded of a character from the The Phantom Tollbooth that Milo meets as he enters the land of Expectations.
"I'm the Whether Man, not the Weather Man, for
after all, it's more important to know whether there
will be weather than what the weather will be."
That is the stage that I'm in: Expectations. I need to know the whether before I can determine the weather. To but it another way, I need to know if and when I will be teaching homophones before I make a list of homophones to teach.
Speaking of weather, it is very hot in Mississippi. One might say muggy. Nineties. Not as bad as I thought it would be, though, because there is air conditioning everywhere. I've been setting up my room and I want to make it cozy but cozy doesn't really fly here. Cozy is for cold climates. Oh, well...
posted by Jessica at 11:06 PM
1 Comments:
Why do you assume the assistant will want to take over? If the assistant has been there for 3 years and isn't teaching yet, perhaps (s)he doesn't yet have a college degree or doesn't want the responsibility.
I vote no on the glasses -- why bother. Once people get to know you, they will see how capable you are. And the kids are too little to see you as anything but an adult. And they're the ones who count!
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