Same old dance but a new beat

Went to the school today to check out my first day stuff. They have this day before the "vets" get there for us newbies to get acquainted and ask questions, like is there a code for the photocopier? how do I sign up for the computer lab? what's the procedure for taking attendance and lunch count? and what happens when I kick a kid out of my room? (that last one rarely happens to me anymore--I've learned over the past few years how to control it in my classroom. But if a kid does stand up and say, "Eat shit, Mr. Bitcher," I want to know where to send him or her.

That's nice that the district does this. This is the kind of stuff that otherwise you have to learn on the fly. They don't go over it with the veterans of the district there because it would bore them to death. While most everything is exactly the same as every other school, there are just little differences to understand and hoops to jump through. For instance, in Nome, the lunch count was taken and put into the computer with the online attendance. Here, you still have to put your lunchcount on a piece of paper and hang it up outside the door, even though attendance is still kept online. Little differences to get used to. A different, yet probably exactly the same, online gradebook program to keep.

I have been assigned a "mentor" for this year, another English teacher that's been in the district for several years. She knows I don't really need anything special with my background any more, but it is nice to know that for anything there is someone to go to.

My classroom will be nice. No window though, so that's a bummer, and after I vied for that coveted window at Nome-Beltz! No one has any windows though! I do have some skylight windows above one wall that go into the hallway. I still have to rearrange my desks. It looks like I will have plenty of room to have the seating that I want--I like a big open space in the middle and the desks on the side, rows of three, all facing inwards. I am never further than three students away this way, plus it keep me a lot more mobile in the room. Glad I have that kind of space.

Tomorrow is the first real inservice day. I'm anxious to really get down to the nitty gritty of planning my class out. I'm still working on my syllabus for seniors.

Radio listened to today: The Lord of the Rings audio play part one