Oh, and I have homework. On top of my unit plan and classroom management plan and syllabus that I need to create by this Friday, I have to think of 2 professional goals for the year and complete the following sentences: I am at my best in the classroom when______, and I am challenged in the classroom when ________. I knew my personal goals since I had thought about those a lot during my last year at UP. I want to start and maintain a lot of contact with parents this year and I want to be very diligent about documenting and tracking student progress. The tracking is super important to TFA because we need to have hard numbers to show student growth, and I know that contact with parents and guardians will essential to success for my students - I have to fight this war on two fronts! Well, not that I think this will be a war. My experience is going to be very different than normal TFA experience. I'm at a school where the students and parents sign a contract about their behavior at KHHS, and want to be there. They are all working towards college, and the faculty all seem to be on the same page. My fellow corps members will mostly be in schools where the faculty and staff aren't on the same page, and the students are often overlooked and where no one signs a contract showing their commitment to excellence.
So as a new teacher without my first paycheck, I am keenly aware of how expensive it is just to be a teacher. KHHS provides me with a lot of supplies, but there are some things that they can't pay for. Their budget was slashed over $1000 per student. That is over $500,000! So I need to buy decorations for my class and who knows what else later down the road. This brings me to a little plug: if you ever want to help a teacher (and probably me in the future), I urge you to go to this website: www.donorschoose.org. This is such a cool website! On this website, teachers can post items they need for their classroom, and then you can donate however much you want to towards their supplies. When the total needed to fund those projects or supplies is reached, the supplies will be shipped to the teacher. I know one girl who has done this already. She is a kindergarten teacher and didn't have a rug in her classroom for her kiddos to sit on. What's a kindergarten classroom without a rug?! So she found one that would work and posted on the website. Within 2 days the amount had been donated and the item was shipped. Now her students have a rug to sit on when they learn about numbers and letters and sharing and all the fun stuff you learn at that age. So take a look around - you can donate as much or as little as you want!
Well, I need to get back to working on my unit plan and classroom management! EEK! I miss you all so much!
Cheers,
D.
