My new chapter

I am very excited to have secured a full time teaching job for the 2012/2013 school year! My placement is in a small town about a half hour from where we live. Half of my day will be spent co-teaching, and the other half is a permanent position. The classes are mostly split, so I have on average 14 or 15 students per class. I will be teaching 6/7 ELA, 6/7 Social Studies, 6/7 Health, 6/7 computers, 8/9 Social Studies, and 8/9 Computers. I will also be co-teaching in 4/5 ELA and Math and 8/9 Science. I am very excited to begin my new journey as a teacher!

I have visited the school a few times since I accepted the job, and I have a TON of work to do already! I am going to do my best this summer to prepare for my classes so that I don't burn out in the first month. I know that as a first year teacher, I will face many challenges so I want to be as prepared as possible. To top it all off, I am dealing with new curriculums since I have moved to a new province!

I cannot wait to start de-cluttering my classroom. I am lucky that I have my own room even though I will be co-teaching in someone else's room for half of the day. There are lots of old books, guides, projects, novels, anthologies, etc. to be thrown out and sorted through. I am also going to have to work hard to collect new resources for my students so that they can get excited about reading and learning! I cannot wait for September, although I am trying my best to enjoy the summer as well. I have excellent support groups at my new school, including an amazing resource teacher and some experienced staff who have offered to support me in any way that they can. As I was told today, everyone has to start somewhere, and the first year is all about surviving, so use every resource available to make your life easier! And so... my blog will now become about my experiences as a first year teacher. Enjoy!

 Let the journey begin...