An Introduction, of Sorts

For anyone who may stop by, let me first welcome you to my blog.  It's purpose is this:  to allow myself an easy method for reflection and to perhaps give others ideas and help in their own classrooms.

When I was interning this past Spring, one of my standing assignments was the completion of several journal entries throughout the semester detailing my experiences during the course of the internship.  I was to examine the good, the bad and the ugly, as it were, and if so desired, my thoughts and feelings as well.  I discovered it to be a highly useful tool for improving my performance as a teacher and a wonderful way to organize my thoughts.  Having been long accustomed to blogging about my life in general, I felt that blogging about my classroom experiences would be no hardship, allowing me to continue the "journaling" experience more easily.

In addition to reflecting upon my teaching, I want to use this journal as a place to put lesson plans that I create and, hopefully, find successful.  For any future visitors to my blog, I hope these things are both enjoyable and helpful.

Moving on...

Somehow, it seems that I would have done better to start this blog before or during the first week of school, so as to better record the events therein.  But as most ought to know, the classroom can be pretty crazy at the start!  Well it's now heading into the third week of school; I finally feel able to start this thing up.

So maybe a bit of a recap is in order?

As a new teacher, there were several things to take up my time at the beginning of the school year, not the least of which was packing and moving six hours away to my new home.  I have found myself rooming with the other art teacher at my school, which has been fortuitous.  From inservices to paperwork to lesson planning for that first week of school, life was a chaotic mess.  Much of it is a blur now as I focus on other things.

Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks I faced was, believe it or not, setting up my classroom.  Now, coming into this position in place of a previous teacher, there are certain things that are different from how I would have imagined.  First, my current room was, at the time of my interview earlier in the year, a music room.  So some things had yet to be moved to the NEW music room.  Easily taken care of.  Secondly, I had to utilize my new teacher budget and buy office supplies.  As many know, braving Wal-Mart at the height of the Back-to-School sales pitch is a long journey, fraught with peril.  I had to learn all about requisition forms (and word to the wise, the office secretaries are smart ladies--they know the answer to a great many things), bringing me to my third task:  inventory.

I currently teach at two schools: the elementary (grades 1-4) and the learning center (Pre-K and Kindergarten).  I had to visit both places and make a list of what supplies I did and did not have (or perhaps that should be DO not have, as I am still waiting for my final supplies to arrive).  When you come into a teaching job, at my district at least, you rely on the person(s) who preceded you to handle things like ordering supplies for the new school year.  So while I had a great many supplies, there were still things missing which I felt I needed in order facilitate a more productive and meaningful art experience.

This is where, while waiting for my supplies, I have to think outside the box.  I have hardly any white drawing paper right now, but there is more pink paper than I can shake a stick at.  So that can be used for pre-sketching and free-draw with no problem, saving the better quality white paper for the "actual" projects.

There is also the decision to make on what needs to go with me in the afternoons when I leave to go teach Kindergarten.  For one thing, at the learning center, my classroom is on a stage in the cafeteria.  So, no, not technically a classroom as most people know them.  I have no sink readily at hand and no drying racks or counters.  This is another area where I must think creatively.  And at the moment, I'm still trying to get it all figured out!

As I go, I feel like things are getting easier to manage (though maybe a little more slowly with Kindergarten).  I think that so far, I've found that feedback is worth more than gold.  Being able to bounce ideas off of and relate experiences to other teachers has been a wonderful help.  But that is a post for another time.