On Wednesday, we will meet en masse to discuss culturally responsive teaching, to meet with our instructional coaches, and to look at the scope and sequence for the year. I suspect other teachers will be preparing their rooms, too. Tomorrow, I’ll be back in the building, pushing around more tables, trying to envision bodies in seats. In a couple of weeks, the teachers in my building will use this slide deck with all of our students to help get everyone acclimated back to academic life and the expectations that come with it. Then, I will construct a Google slide show explaining the grading system and the policies regarding plagiarism and technology use at my school. In a few hours, I’ll compose a letter to their parents, informing them that their child has been selected for a special program, that their attendance is crucial, that the potential impact is great. I thought soon these names will represent bodies, faces, lives that might be impacted by this intervention, but not yet. I read the freshman roster this morning and attempted to select those who would participate in my reading class - glancing at names, but relying on data points to make my selections. The bells were already ringing on schedule, and more staff bodies were moving through the building, but no teens yet. I could almost see them as I slid tables and chairs, reconfiguring the space to meet this year’s needs. I got close last week when I was pushing desks around in my classroom. I’ve received generous donations from seven friends - snacks, prizes, feminine supplies, gift cards, and the like.Įach day holds a detail or responsibility that reminds me I’m getting closer, but I am still not picturing student faces. I’ve crocheted six headbands to put in my prize boxes. I’ve ordered five items online - contact paper for attaching labels to student desks, stickers for students to decorate their composition books, two pairs of shoes, and three tubes of lipstick. I’ve attended four zoom meetings - one with a large group of district leaders to discuss changes for the coming year, one with our building’s leadership team to sort out deadlines and responsibilities for the next two weeks of professional development and back to school activities, one with a colleague to get into the specifics of those responsibilities, and one with two administrators to sort out the details for the student teaching supervision that I have agreed to. I’ve been working on three deadlines– three deliverables that are all due by or before today - one for my policy fellowship, one for my role as master teacher, and one for my role as reading interventionist. I took two short trips for fun - one to see my mom and help her sort through some closets and memories and another to share a meal with long time friends. While I was there, I picked up a new laptop and logged in for the first time, made sure all my stuff loaded, and turned on my projector to see if it’s going to cooperate this year. Since last week’s post, I have taken one trip to my school to drop off more supplies including 100 composition books and a variety of incentive prizes I gathered over the summer. This morning at church, a friend, smiling, asked if I was ready to go back to school yet.
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