Week 1 Reflections Jr. High

The first weeks of school are always difficult, but this last week seemed to be even harder than normal. For reasons out of my control I didn't have much time to get mentally prepared for this school year and I have felt extremely lost so far. Here are a few things I need to work on:

1) I need to continue using my planning time for planning classes and thinking about students. I know this sounds obvious, but I spend a lot of time "helping" others with their technology and sometimes it takes up too much of my time.

2) I suck at "hurry up and wait". Not sure what I can do about this except smile more.

3) Team teaching is not something to enter into lightly, especially if there is no opportunity to plan with the teacher you will be working with. I am taking lead this week, the other teacher is actually the expert in the field. I should know a lot more about how well this is going to work very soon.

4) I was very active in trying to develop relationships with my students, especially the new students. I need to keep this up. When I am with the students I need to be actively engaged with them.

5) It is really nice to have a group of students that have been with me for several years. There was no awkward time when we were trying to get to know each other. It was one thing that really helped me keep from stressing out last week.

Next week's goal:

I am teaching math for the first time in about 8 years. I want very much to make the time I teach (this is the co-teaching class) a learning experience for all the students. I am going to find real world situations where using angles is important.