Teaching 190 Days @teaching190 - Tumblr Blog

The zombie hordes are approaching! #Zombicide

Day Two: Keeping an open mind

Students started showing up today, checking their schedules and introducing themselves to their teachers. It was a nice reminder about why I teach. I love when former students stop by to keep me posted on their lives. However, the constant visits meant that I have so much work to do tomorrow! Hopefully, I can sneak some work during the meetings in the morning.

Day One: And we're back

Okay, I cheated. Teachers reported today, but I went in last week to decorate my room.This may seem so minute, but it is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT part of my opening routine. I learned early in my teaching career that the first week of meetings are completely unpredictable, and all the time you thought you would have to make your classroom nice dissipate quickly into the school-zonel ether.

Take today for example. We were lucky in that we were given about five hours to work on our own projects without any meetings. Five whole stinking hours! Whee! Of course, I got to use about one of them. The steady stream of visitors, some who want to chat about their summer and many more who want to pick your brain or borrow books or share ideas or ... Okay, okay, okay! So maybe I was doing a lot of the visiting. But I can do it. Why? Because this guy's room is already looking fly.

All told, I was able to sketch out an opening week with my co-teacher and make some copies of new exit activities I created over the summer. BUT, I never once stressed about putting up posters. If kids showed up tomorrow, I may not have a great lesson ready, but the room will look damn good.