November 6, 2013--I can describe my response to my first day in the classroom in one word: Disorienting. I think the first day placed me in a state of disequilibrium. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First I'll describe the events that happened.
When I first got there, the class was finishing up morning work. They worked on a science quiz about the stars; passed off some math facts for Knights of the Math Table; and corrected the previous day's math homework, which was about integers and whole numbers. The teacher then started guided reading. She called several reading groups back to the half-circle-shaped table at the back of the classroom and worked with groups. She asked various students to read aloud and kept a tally in her gradebook, which she called a running record and said we would learn about that next semester in literacy.
In some of the reading groups the students handed in completed book reports. The teacher had given them a few options for their assignment, and she asked the students to explain to the group which option they chose and why. This was my favorite part of the day. I appreciated being able to see the way the teacher allowed the students to self-differentiate by choosing from a variety of reporting methods. I was thrilled to get a chance to look at what the individual students came up with. The students were allowed to choose between writing a letter from one character to another; creating a newspaper page featuring one of the events in the book; or drawing an 8-frame cartoon depicting a scene in the book. This is one of my favorite things about teaching--participating in students' individual responses and seeing their personalities emerge through their creative output.
As I got ready to go the morning of the first day I struggled with feeling ill at ease. I wondered how I should act, if I should speak or just observe, and how to go about making a good impression. Because it was a half day of school, we were scheduled to be there first thing in the morning. I got there around 8:45 a.m. and asked the teacher if there was anything I could do to help (school starts at 9 a.m.). She looked surprised and explained that she wasn't used to having any help, so she'd have to think about it for a minute. I feel good about this; it seemed like it helped me start off on the right foot.
With regard to what didn't work or what I would change, I can't think of many things. I wish I had felt more comfortable with the students that first day, but there really is no way to naturally accelerate that process. It just takes time to ease into things, get to know students as individuals, adjust to the pacing of the day, and feel comfortable with the classroom milieu. It's kind of a honeymoon period. I suspect it will be much the same for the first few months of the school year when I'm teaching on my own.
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