My Corner for Education

I didn’t mean to neglect my blog; however, September is always the
busiest time for teachers. We have to lay down the rules, set up
the routines in the classroom and map out the program for the year.
I have been so exhausted for the last two weeks trying to set up my
classroom. Students are finally in school this week, but I still
feel like unprepared for my class no matter how much time and
energy I have put into my long day of work.

In June, we moved out of the portables (temporary classroom in a
trailer) and into our brand new buildings in a flash. The portables
were scheduled to get picked up and moved out to another school
location. Unfortunately, a typical construction project is always
notorious for not being able to close the deal on time. Of course,
our school was not an exception. So, a week before school ended in
June, we had to quickly shove everything in boxes without
sufficient time to sort through each and every single item and then
quickly moved out. I ended up moving into a brand new empty room
without working windows, functioning air vents, and bookshelves.
Basically, I just piled up all the boxes in the room and then left
for the summer in hope that we could set up our room in August
after the room is cleaned. 

We were not allowed to be in the school
premise due to continuous construction in the library and computer
lab. Three weeks ago when I tried to get into my classroom, I was
turned away because the construction for the computer lab was just
completed and the custodial staff were cleaning and waxing the
hallways. A week ago, we were only allowed to stay around till
three o’clock in the afternoon. Bummer. I NEEDED my two weeks of
planning to set up the new room!

School started on Tuesday. We still have no shelves in the room.
The new desks for students have not arrived for the junior
division, which means that I will not be able to inherit their old
ones either. The thermometer is locked out with a password, so we
have heat running in the classroom while it is 32 degrees Celsius
outside. We have no drinking fountain in any of the new classroom.
Today I actually came across a de-humidifier in the storage but it
almost flooded my classroom due to the broken water container. All
in all, we are finally in the room.

It has been quite busy this week because kids are also in school! A
new group of students, of course, comes with a new group of
attitudes and a new set of problems. I have 21 students in my Grade
Three class this year. It will take a while for my students to get
acquainted with me. We no longer have much time to run those
typical “All about Me” activities in September because the program
is very hectic with the newly updated curriculum. I know that there
will never be down time in my Grade Three class. I just hope that
there will always be laughers with this group. We have to have fun
learning!
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Please do not ask me to post school pictures. I would love to share
them with you. It is not because I am too lazy to take photos. As
you can tell, I do not use real names in many of my personal
stories. Due to the Privacy Act in Ontario, I am not supposed to
post students’ names, photos, or any personal information online
without parents’ consents or School Board’s permission. Unlike some
Taiwanese teachers or bloggers who are free to post interesting
video clips and class photos, technically, I can’t even show my
class photos to my own family without school permission. I will,
however, try to post some of the projects that we will be working
on throughout the year.

During the summer, I went to many professional workshops for
teachers. This is the first year that I did not take a course in
July. (I was hoping I could go back to Taiwan for a visit, you
see.) In fact, I did not even touch my stained glass tools or my
paint brushes. All I did was to go to different workshops and
conferences, one after another. I was literally pumped with ideas
for Literacy program in reading and writing. I met a few gurus
(authors) whom I've admired deeply. Through these workshops with the
master teachers, I realized that I am not a bad teacher after all!
(Ha. Ha. Ha. Why do we always need assurance from others to prove
that we are not bad teachers? Anyway, at least my self-esteem as a
teacher was significantly increased after the workshop. He.he.he.)
Now, it is time for me to put these great ideas to test.