Today I met with our administrators to help plan our school year. We went week by week and laid out every meeting, training, and major initiative for the year. In some regards it is nice to have a plan, but it is rather scary to see how much work is ahead. In the administrators minds the focus is how high our scores are and how can we get them ever higher.
To this end, we’ll spend the first two days of preschool listening to the new policies and our future evaluations. While the presenter goes on about something that may be important I’m sure my mind will want to wander into my classroom preparations. As teachers we face ever increasing requirements and less time to complete these requirements. All the work will get done, but I am daunted by what is ahead.
I once heard someone ask this question, “How do you climb a mountain?” His answer was one step at a time. I’ve tried to keep that perspective when I feel the stress of getting started with a new year. My first step will be to get the expectations of my bosses, my next step will be to get my room organized. With each step of preparations, I’ll get closer to being ready for the students to arrive. I’ll then take steps to understand my students needs, etc. After many single steps I’ll catch my stride and start the hard work of climbing through the year.
Most of you have already started the new year, or you are just about to begin. If the challenges before you look near impossible, just remember. The only way you’re going to get anywhere is one step at time.
(In the comments below, please tell me what ludicrous things you have to do before you can start teaching. )
Well, our new prinicipal said that we could not bring our children to school while we work on setting up our classrooms. This means that either I pay someone to babysit so I can go in on my own time and set up my class, or I can wait until next week and try to get it all done in between meetings. Next week we have 3 days of meetings - none of it very interesting for primary teachers lol. So far our principl has not given any new guidance so I am assuming that I can still write my plans as I did last year etc. Oh, she did ban classroom pets as well - seems she is squeamish about animals, I hope to eventually find an administrator that understands the benefits of both classroom pets and free choice play in kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteJennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten