1st math test of the year (Data Analysis & Statistics): finished writing.
1st science quiz of the year (What is Physical Science?): needs to be corrected.
Lots of miscellaneous papers in my school bag: have been put off yet again.
Unit Plan for the next 3 weeks: so not even started yet.
The idea of crawling into bed at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon and staying there: YAY FRIDAY!
My greatest pleasure in life now: going to bed early.
There is a crazy amount of paperwork to keep up with and my meager filing system is not yet up to the task. I need a file for each student, files for lesson plans, files for activities, files for school handouts, files for discipline documentation, files for nurse notes, files for tests, files for assignments to grade and assignments that have been graded. And there is just not time to do all of this. Or maybe I'm just to exhausted to think about it but I know that I have to get organized and that will make my life easier. Before you start teaching everybody says, "Be organized," but no one really tells you where to start. It's all on-the-job training. I am forced to wing it constantly, which I knew would happen but I can't help but wonder whether I'm really making the best decisions that way. I miss lots of things. I can only multitask up to a certain point and then my brain just falls apart. It's like an endurance sport trying to keep up with it all.
Oh, let's not forget all the IEPs I have yet to read and cumilative files for all my students in the office that I keep meaning to go look at. And all the phone calls I keep meaning to make.
I just need one more day in my weekend to keep my thoughts together. The good news is that Tuesday is an in-service day so I only have to plan four lessons for this week. Speaking of which, I must get to it.
It is really difficult to plan lessons when you have no idea what your students already know. Even harder when you don't know when your math books are going to show up. Even harder when you're just not sure how well your students will cooperate with you and with each other. What do I need to do to prepare them for everything that I want them to be able to do? I'm trying not to be overly ambitious without treating the kids like they're dumb. How much math can I do in the first week? And science?--this is an animal I wasn't prepared to grapple with.
How can I plan for an objective when I don't even know where to look for it?
I'm neck deep in books, curricula, lesson plans, procedures, and oh so many expectations. Still have to call all my students' parents tomorrow and I'm not sure when that is going to happen. It is daunting since I was unable to catch the other 6th teacher to split the work before she left school on Friday so I get to call all 39 of them. I don't want to make phone calls! I want to go to Satchmo Fest, drink my share of beer, eat my share of tasty food, lounge about in the summer sun, and listen to way too much good music for FREE. Plus, my father is buying dinner. I'm a big fan of free dinner. Especially after I just spent about $200 on teacher-type supplies.
I'm still really excited about the school year, despite my current state of deer-in-headlights and exhaustion. It's just very overwhelming and I really need another week to prepare. And sleep.
