MCC Friday Reflections

     The first weeks of a school year are primarily dedicated the idea of “getting to know”.  Students get to know their teachers, classmates, classrooms, rules, expectations, and the daily routines.  Teachers get to know their students, roles in the building, new staff, and new parents.            Embedded with “getting to know” the students is the students’ academic performance that a teacher must take into consideration before diving fully into the teaching arena.  We must ascertain what our students know, their skills, strategies, learning styles and attitudes toward school & learning.  This is accomplished in many ways through short group exercises, whole group meetings, individual assessments, and simple observation.  It’s an arduous, time-consuming task that comes to fruition somewhere around the fifth week of school.                   ...

I w alk into my 14th year teaching walking into a new classroom (literally).  The past 14 years of my  teaching life have been spent on the second floor in the same room, Room 202.  I now reside on the first  floor, room 126.      Quite unexpectedly I have found a burst of novelty.  Not only for the physical space in which I teach, but  also in the teaching itself.  A fresh perspective; from the scene outside my "new" window to the way my  space is organized.  The move allowed me to rid myself of items that I no longer used or needed,  providing a cleaner, more organized look to my current classroom.  Couple this novelty with the new  school year and I find myself with an extra "spring in my step" as I cruise around the room as students  work.        Then there are the students.  New faces for me to pair with the names I've written and typed on so  many documents thu...