First Day of school

Today was the first day of school!

Originally what I had planned was the students would come in and I would greet them. After greeting the students I would have them make name tags and I would then jump into the engineering design loop and the paper tower challenge. It would just be a one day thing. Another teacher told me to have them have something on their tables as they walked in so I could take roll. This was in valueable information and worked out well in all my periods except for one which was more chatty. Another teacher told me to just let them choose their seats for the first week, because the rosters tend to change a lot in math, social studies, and science. So I let them do that as well.

What actually happened was the students walked in and sat down. Then I started before the bell like 3 times. I took roll as the students filled out the fakebook. Some were really fast, and there were 2 boys who hardly put anything more than their names. I had to move a couple students because they were chatty with who they sat next to. I alternated between periods, some I handed out all the materials for nametags, others I had the students come get them. At least everyone had a pencil today. Then as students moved on from fakebook I collected each one and said the student's individual name to help me learn it. And then I instructed them to read the instructions. When most tables were on to that part I stopped the class and had the students summarize what they read and the goals of the day. Then the students wrote or drew a plan and in the last 10 minutes or so, I checked the plans and distributed materials for the first trial. I made a powerpoint, but as per my teaching style, I forgot to use it. Also, I forgot to give out my raffle tickets. I won't be explaining that for a couple says anyways. It was pulling teeth trying to get some kids to talk to one another in some cases. In other cases it was impossible to stop them from having a huge argument. I need to work on my mediation skills it seems. I would say 80% or more of the students were actively participating. Probably even more were engaged. I got some pretty good designs, but not a lot of good plans. I did not scaffold them enough on what to write, I should have done guided practice or modeling first. And they probably have no idea what the engineering loop is. I am still concerned with learning everyone's names. The teachers too.

My management was too relaxed. I will have trouble in the future because of that. It is just not my style to be so on top of it all. Luckily I will have an instructional aide in all of my classes except for two of them.

Tomorrow I plan On finishing up this lesson. Finish the initial models, do a gallery walk, and then plan and build a second, taller model. I should write sentence frames on the board. Then I will do Wednesdays plan the next day, which was syllabus and rule writing. Then Friday we will practice getting in to and out of cooperative groups.