Survival of the Fittest

Yes, this is post #2 today... I meant to post this earlier this week...but I was too busy trying to survive.
I picked a biology title because, Hey, I teach biology.

First week is complete! I hung on for dear life this week, and survived. Planning to use this weekend to get ahead in lesson planning which will help a ton. I was up at work until at least 8 or 9 every day this week just trying to prepare for the next day. But I hear this is to be expected your first year teaching.

I see some of my kids every day (1st and 5th periods), and others every other day (2nd, 3rd, 4th). It's called a modified block or a hybrid block schedule. I've gotten to know my every day kids really well, and I am glad to have them every day because they are special and need lots of extra attention. I've got 2 classes of seniors which I absolutely LOVE. They are my favorite so far, there is such a huge difference between seniors and freshmen.

The only class I'm not sure I have my "bluff" in yet is B-day 3rd period - freshmen. They are really pushing me and requiring way more directives than the other 3 classes of freshmen. If you'd like: pray for me to be patient yet firm with them, and pray that I'd have wisdom in how to capture their attention and lead them to learn.


Thought I'd include a few final pics of how my classroom ended up. The full finished product.

The things on the windows are "word walls" which is where we write vocab and other high traffic words. It's a good thing to reference back to.

The tables are marked with colorful paper microscopes to differentiate each person's seating location.

The supplies are out on the desks at all times, and with good discussion, so far none of it has been taken.

These are Social Contracts: We discussed for a few minutes how we all want to be treated: Them by me, them by each other, and me by them. We came up with similar words, so we agreed and signed that we would treat each other this way. Notice the difference in how 1st and 5th filled it out... both freshmen classes...




And I hung them on the ceiling for a permanent reminder that we all agreed. :)