You know you're tired when...

...You're too tired to come up with a proper rant about the lack of proper school supplies in your new building. Sorry yesterday's post was so lame.

We do, however, now have a nice shiny, brand new scantron machine in our workroom. Hallelujah!

Back to School Night tonight. This is a curious phenomenon. When I was a student (all those many years ago), I remember my parents going off to my elementary school to meet my teachers. I think one year we made cutouts of ourselves to put at our desks so our parents knew where we sat. That may have been for Mrs. Paley's first grade. Hey, Mrs. Paley, if you're out there: Thanks! You were awesome.

Anyway, I don't remember my parents going to BTSN when I was in high school. They can correct me if they wish (and they will), but I don't think we had it. So it's interesting that here we do have it. The other interesting thing is who comes. I think we will have a pretty big turn out, just because this is a new school, and the parents want to check us out. It's a wee bit like coming to see the animals in their natural habitat. However, this time, please feel free to give the animals chocolate and coffee. (Yes, pump the teachers up on legal stimulants, what a great idea.) In years past, I have consistently had a pretty big turnout of parents - and not just one, but both. I always have a lot of my AP parents come - they want to make sure I'm not going to ruin their child's chances of getting into UVA or something. No fear - I know what I'm talking about (crash, bang, boom, as I trip over the wires in the front of the room in a classic Lucy Ricardo-esque stumble).

However, I think BTSN scares the kids to death. Yesterday in 7th period (our most rambunctious, but pretty much on task class), we asked them if their parents would be coming tonight, and they said "NO!" with horrified expressions on their faces. I think that they think the parents are coming to find out how they are each doing in class - like one great big tattle tale or something. No fear, fair students...they're just here to check us out. If anything, we should be the ones saying "NO!" with horrified expressions on our faces!

BTSN is grueling, it is long, and frankly, it's a little scary. It's one thing to get up in front of a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds, but parents.... At any rate, this is my 7th BTSN, so you'd think I'd be really good at this by now. I don't know how much sense I make when I get up there - I tend to go into a caffeine & terror-fueled rant...err, ramble (not much better, I know), and then before I know it, my 10 minute speech has been completed in 5 minutes. How's that for instilling confidence!? Still, it must work, because most parents seem pretty satisfied by the time they leave the room. Or at least they aren't running to the Guidance department demanding that their child be pulled out of that crazy lady's classroom.

I think this BTSN is going to be especially important - like all the other firsts this year (first pep rally, first day of school, first football game, first fire drill...the list goes on and on) - it will help to set the tone for what our school is about. Our principal is very big on setting tone and establishing who we are. He wants us to be ... well, almost like a beacon. It's so important to him that this school be a place where people feel safe, where students and parents know they will be getting a quality education, and where our students have lots of school spirit but are also respectful of others, their school and their country. (Insert waving flag and grandiose music in the background here) I'm not nervous about BTSN yet - there's still the whole school day to get through, but get back to me at about 3:30 this afternoon, after the kids have gone, and when I can't grade one more essay without my eyes falling out of my head. (Yes, I know, I assigned them, thanks very much, so I've only got myself to blame.)

My tips for surviving BTSN:

1. Get a good night's sleep the night before. Well, that's shot - I exercised too late last night, so was up 'til 11:30.
2. Wear comfortable shoes during the day (my sneaks ain't comin' off 'til the parents get here)
3. Wear a comfortable, but professional looking outfit (I love my new school clothes. Yes, I am such a girl)
4. Try to take a walk away from the building for at least 15 minutes - get out in the sun.
5. Have an agenda, and something for the parents to fill out.
6. Try to have student work on the walls if possible.
7. Relax and smile - the parents love you for what you do, they just want to make sure you're ok.
8. It'll be over soon, and tomorrow you can go to bed at 6pm if you want.

The straw...

I was calm and collected when I learned we wouldn't have use of our Smartboards on the first day of school. I took it in stride when we were told we didn't yet have our World History textbooks. I was ok about the fact that we didn't have a laminator. What was it that finally sent me over the edge? We don't have a *#$&! Scantron machine! So that test I gave on Friday? Can't run it through the machine, because we don't have one!!! Who opens a school without a scantron machine?

You got WHAT in the WHERE?

Well, there's always a first for everything...I got punched in the nose today. Yes, you read that right, a student punched me in the nose. She didn't mean to, it was entirely an accident. It was hilarious! She is, of course, mortified. Let me set the scene for you...

In AP Psychology, we're learning about research. I'm doing an activity to help students think about all the different aspects of an experiment. I didn't actually think up this activity myself - it came with a series of lesson plan ideas from TOPSS (an association for high school psychology teachers). Anyway, it involves testing reaction times of students. They have some great activities and lesson ideas that can be adapted for any classroom. I've used a bunch of their ideas. For this one, the idea is that you set up an experiment that is HUGELY flawed, and students have an opportunity to point out the flaws, until you think you have all accounted for. You start with the hypothesis that boys have a faster reaction time than girls, and you call up students to test that theory. You hold a ruler up over the student's hand, and they have to catch it between their thumb and forefinger. I had said student up in front of the room, and she was on her second trial (the first one she hadn't caught, so she was getting increasingly flustered). She caught the ruler, and, as I was leaning over to check where she had caught it so we could keep track of our data, she raised her hand and bonked me on the nose. It didn't really hurt very much, she didn't get a chance to get much momentum, but it was a relatively good bonk, nonetheless.

I told her it was no big deal, and that there was a first time for everything. The whole class, of course, erupted into giggles (mostly nervous giggles, I think they were trying to figure out how I would react more than anything else). I think I handled it pretty well, actually. I had a laugh, and I told her it was fine, and when she kept apologizing, I told her it was ok, really.

And then we had a fire drill. So, business as usual.


My nose does kind of hurt a little bit, but I can't tell if it really hurts, or if I just think it hurts.

3...2...1...we have liftoff!!!

First day done! And successful, I would say. The computer equipments worked, our plans went ... well, as planned. Kids were on time to class, they were mostly curteous and seemingly eager to learn. One of the questions we asked the students was to tell us about their expectations for the year and the school, and the overwhelming response was that they wanted to continue to be in such a nice building, and they wanted to do well in school this year. They were determined to try to make a fresh start of it. Let's hope that stays!!

Some of you were amused by the fact that we had to sing for the parents and students last week. Don't you do enough for the students, I hear you cry? Well yes. But I really think having us stand up in our school shirts and sing the school song was a pretty powerful statement to the parents and students who were in the gym with us. There we all were, in one section of the bleachers, and so we were quite a sea of green polo shirts, I can imagine. I think that having us sing for the students and parents let them know that we were just as invested in the school and creating a community as they were. I think we are well on our way to creating a community.

However, I love stuff like that. Gets me a little teary, donchaknow?

What went really well today:

the bells all rang at the proper time
the clocks all were set to the same time
morning annoucements produced and read by students were ready to go
students were on time to class
students seemed eager to be there...even those students who wished for a longer summer vacation!

What didn't:

Frankly, can't really think of a thing, with the exception of attendance/students schedules. We had several students walk into class who weren't on our lists, several students who were on our lists who weren't in class today, and several different lists of students that didn't quite match up. I had one list that said two different pieces of information: "Students enrolled in class: 19...Students in course: 20". That was confusing. Schedules will be in flux for several days, I'm sure. I have found that schedules tend to be in flux the first few days of school no matter where, however.

I'm going to take my tired old bones on home. Wish me luck for the second day!

School starts on Tuesday....

...and our syllabus was FINALLY APPROVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! I'm off to the copier!