Flashbacks ...

My mind is a little overloaded with information right now. Day 3 of New Teacher Orientation was today, and I feel more like a real teacher every day. Today was a little surreal ~ I kept having flashbacks to my 1st day of college: getting keys to my room, stumbling around the building looking for my room, assessing the furniture situation, checking out other rooms on the hallway in attempt to discover the best arrangement, meeting other new teachers on my hall, sitting through numerous informational meetings, etc. etc. etc. I was hit with the reality today that I'm it: my cooperating teacher is no longer my safety net ... this is "for real," as my nephew would say. Not only am I running this show, but I'm also writing the script.

I'm so glad I decided to teach at this school. The staff seems so supportive, and I think I'll enjoy working with the other ILTs. I was a bit concerned that our school has 28 new teachers this year, but apparently a bunch of teachers had gotten old & decided to retire. It's nice to know I won't be the only one trying to figure things out & learn the routine.

I have tons left to do (Open House is Sunday!), but I finally left the building because I kept getting sidetracked & distracted & wasn't really accomplishing much of anything besides refining my super sleuth skills. The first thing I did in my classroom was raise the blinds; I felt better instantly. I'm still a little lost inside such a huge room, but completely thrilled that I have so much bench space and 5 sinks (with running water, even!) I poked around the large storage closet and found a variety of items, from the usual consumables & glassware (which one would expect in a science classroom) to various other things, such as 25 boxes of rock salt, various files & folders, leftover transparencies & quizzes, a grammar workbook (do science teachers in middle school teach grammar too?!), photo of the basketball team (circa 1995), box of random novels, an assortment of progress reports, faculty handbook, field trip permission slips, a curious bottle of mysterious purple liquid (which suspiciously resembles ethidium bromide waste), and a lunchbox (complete with someone's uneaten snacks).

Part of me doesn't even know where to begin. My gut wants to work on lesson plans, but I don't want to have bare white walls and empty cork boards for Open House (plus, I really can't wait to use the laminator and die cut). I'm a little concerned about the teaching materials, or rather, lack thereof ~ the dept. leader told me today that student textbooks have arrived, but none of the teacher's editions or additional ancillary materials have been delivered yet. I know I don't absolutely need a teacher's edition to plan lessons, but it certainly would make life easier.

I always thought people said middle school was the hardest to teach because of the students' raging hormones & the accompanying drama. However, I'm finding out that it's also because middle school teachers have a lot of additional responsibilities ~ issuing lockers & locks, keeping up with $/receipts, taking kids to classes/bathrooms/assemblies/cafeteria/bus lot, teaching (not just reviewing/telling) procedures, teaching (not just issuing a handbook) the school policies & guidelines, team meetings, team planning, etc. etc.

I'm totally overwhelmed, and I have no idea how I'm going to get everything done in time, but at least I'm smiling.