Well, I did it! I made it through my first quarter teaching!! :D The nine weeks ended on September 14th. That seems crazy early, but seeing as we started July 16th, it's so exciting! I loved every minute of my quarter - okay, maybe not *every* minute. There were some downs, but mainly this first quarter was great. I definitely have some growing to do as a teacher, but I am confident I will get there. I continue to have great support from all of my colleagues and I am going to visit a former teacher soon to get some sage advice from her. :)
The end of the quarter was relatively easy for me. I made sure to make all my papers due BEFORE then; otherwise I would have died under that grading! I gave two tests that week (one to 9th grade and one to 10th) and was able to have them graded in 24 hours. I updated RenWeb and had final grades in Thursday before the track-out date. I also was able to contact some parents to warn them about student grades. I will admit that was awkward for me; I didn't really know what to say and it felt weird calling home to tell them. However, that's part of the job. My test for ninth grade was easy. Or so I thought. Most of my students didn't study so out of 37 students, about 15-19 of them failed. That's almost one whole class. I was really upset that last Thursday. I wasn't mad at the students, just saddened that students cared that little. I talked with them about it Friday. A lot of them begged to do test corrections. I said no. I had to have grades in that afternoon (I would be out of town all weekend and the deadline was Sunday night), and if they had studied they would have done better. Then, track out began!!
Last week was great. I am definitely recharging from quarter one and am ready for quarter two!! I have already gotten the majority of my planning done for ninth grade. We will be starting some fiction and then reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I really want to look at stereotypes/bullying with this book. I'm hoping that works out. With the last book we read (Anthem), I could barely get the students past plot. Even then, most of them didn't know that either. Tenth grade is still a struggle for me (which is still strange because that's what I student taught!). However, we are having a writer-in-residence for the first week! It'll be very exciting. I even get to participate! I will definitely be blogging about that adventure. I got to meet the writer, and she was very nice. The whole program sounds very exciting!
Overall, I think year-round is the best way to go as a beginning teacher. Having this break is really good for me. I can relax and dedicate myself to planning. I can't imagine how I would get anything done if I didn't have this break. Of course, I may have said no to volleyball if I didn't have this break. Maybe. But I think that all first year teachers should try to get a job at a year-round school. It is a HUGE advantage to go straight into teaching (all fresh in your mind), and this break is really good. It'll help keep new teachers from burning out their first year...and maybe even help the retention rate! :D
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