Behold, The Land of Learning…

That’s right, I’m in my room and beginning the process of creating a “fun and successful learning environment”. Yeah, that sounds good.

It’s actually a pretty cool room in a nice part of the school. I’m next to a lot of really helpful and kind teachers. I know they will be willing to help me out of a bind and keep me going toward realizing my goal.

Here are a few poorly taken photos of my poorly organized and bare classroom.

This is looking at the back/lab area

This is more of a middle of the room / gratuitous shot of the fume hood

 

 

This is the front of the room, taken from the entrance into the class

This is the view "from the trenches".

(Wow, upon reading my comments to my own photos, I realize how much of a nerd I really am)

Oh, it’s gigantic. I have 25 seats in the front for “instructional purposes” and eight lab tables in the back for “more in depth instructional purposes”.

Pro: It’s all mine.

Con: Not much else in there to be mine. The storage room is bare.

Pro: There is a dishwasher to wash beakers, cylinders, containers and cups.

Con: There is no hot water because students may burn themselves.

Pro: It was given to me in relatively clean order.

Con: It doesn’t have anything in it for it to be dirty.

Pro: I have my very own office.

Con: No desk chair/printer/cables/wireless internet.

Pro: Other teachers are nice enough to offer me plenty of lab materials if I need them.

Con: Will not be dissecting cats this year…bummer. (Not that I have anything against cats living)

So it looks like my year has a few bumps already but I’m sure those will smooth out in no time. (I put this sentence in here so I can read it later and feel a little better about myself.)

My main concern is in regards to making lesson plans that meet up with state standards and still having a big “fun” factor. I want this to me my idea’s and actions that make this class unique. I don’t want to steal/borrow lesson ideas from everybody, but I guess I may have to make accommodation in that regard. I mention this because today was my first day of “pre-planning” week.

For those of you not in the know, “pre-planning” week is where teachers come back before students. Then they have a lot of meetings and gripe about whether they are going to even be prepared for this upcoming year. I guess it’s an old tradition around this profession. But to me it’s not a tradition as much as it is a real concern.

I’m not ready for this at all.

I on the other hand am not too busy talking about my small paycheck or my very “disruptive” class last year. I’m not too worried about who took my pencil sharpener or who is telling me the wrong things about meetings. That I will leave to those seasoned veterans of the teaching force.

I am much more concerned about not having a complete meltdown within the next week and a half.

College never prepared me for anything I have been doing in the past two weeks…

So, I hope I can pretend that I know what I’m doing for long enough until I actually figure it out.

I guess if they learn that I’m not really all I’m cracked up to be then I’ll get plenty of spare time to work on that silly lamp of mine…

Wow, that really takes me back. Back in the days where I was free to grow my facial hair and build goofy lamps. Yeah, sweet memories.

Sucking his thumb while sleeping tonight,

D.A.