First days of Work

I have officially started working as a teacher and have begun the process of setting up my room. I still feel like I am behind despite reassurance from my assistant principal that I am right on track. Today was the first day I have been to my classroom since my brief walk through during my interview. I forgot how wonderfully large my classroom actually is...seriously it seems huge. I did some measuring today as I try to plan my layout of tables and such and I discovered that I have roughly 990 square feet. This should be plenty of space, though, I am sure that it will fill up quickly as I get carried away like every other teacher as they begin to decorate. The only downside so far is that I do not have a key; hopefully I will have one by Friday. I just hope that I can finish juggling some last minute tasks and get everything set for that "epic" first day of school.

I have attended two off site training sessions this week and enjoyed them both despite missing a great deal due to my physical exam. I still don't understand why we bother to make appointments. I was scheduled to go on the same day as my school's first training session. I thought it would be okay because they said it wouldn't take long. Well it took three hours, so I missed the entire first half of the training which made me feel a little uneasy since I was hoping to meet the teachers I will be working with. I appear to be joining a very friendly and caring group of teachers; they all made me feel very welcome as a new teacher. Today's training was a speaker, Dr. Donna Ford, at Morgan State University. There seemed to be a bit of a mix up however, as I was sent to the wrong session time. I don't think it will matter much since she said she was giving the same lecture to both groups. The session was long but I did enjoy hearing data about reasons for student failure. I am a sucker for data and enjoy thorough analysis...weird I know.