Monday, September 6, 2010

did i teach last september?!?!?!

so today . . . there were no new adventures--consequently no chuckles. i've been writing lesson plans...

last year, because of enrollment considerations, i taught a combined pre-k/kindergarten class for the first time. this meant two small groups of students who had to be taught two different curriculums, and two different schedules which had to be adjusted into one. oh, and all this had to happen in a different room (because the kindergarten room is not rated for pre-k.) and the only available room was tiny--like smaller-than-a-one-car-garage tiny!

i was not a happy camper.

at least i still had a job, so i did my best to make it work. it was hard, but i got through the year, the kids learned the things they needed to learn, and i looked forward to going back to kindergarten this fall...

but here is the problem with working for a private school--enrollment can fluctuate wildly from year to year. a few years ago i had a class of 16! all by myself!! the next year i had 2. yes, 2. needless to say, adjustments had to be made... and then last year i had the combined class. so when you work for a private school, you have to be somewhat flexible if you want to keep your job. which i do. because my school is just a mile from my house, which allows me to sleep longer in the morning...

this year i thought i might get to go back to all kindergarten again, but enrollment issues continued to force flexibility. so last week i spent long days moving to yet another classroom and trying to find a place for everything. which i did. and as i was leaving friday night, i looked around and felt pretty good about what i had managed to accomplish in one week...

...until i realized that not one lesson plan had been written.

yeah, lesson plans are kind of important. i usually keep the ones i have written and reuse them as i can. but last year in september i was trying to figure out how i was going to make this whole two curriculum thing work when i was the only teacher in the classroom. this required some trial and error, but by october i had it under control. unfortunately, i didn't write down what i did in september. so on friday when i pulled out the old lesson plans from last year...there weren't any.

so here i am, surrounded by papers and files and books, trying to decide what to do next week...

but you may notice i took a little break to write this blog. and post it. before 11:00.

one goal down, three to go...

1 comment:

mom said...

Oh, yeah lesson plans. They are rather important. Hope it all comes together soon. I went out and helped Marcia Spani get students settled this morning. She has 27 first graders. A real handful. Going to be a lot of tired teachers this year....Be sure and get your rest...