The First Days of School

I have been meaning to write here for a while now, and tonight seems just as good a time as any. The last couple weeks in particular things have really picked up as far as getting ready for the students to come. I have met with one of my mentors several times to work on my classroom and go over some of the curriculum. I have also been through three days of professional development training for new teachers. Two of those days consisted of learning the Boys Town model for classroom management. They really focus on proactively teaching positive behaviors, which really goes well with Harry Wong's emphasis in his book on practicing procedures from the beginning. Today was a literacy strategies class in which we looked at the Six Traits of Writing, a program called Step Up to Writing, and a couple workshops on personal narratives and reading comprehension strategies. Overall, I feel thoroughly overwhelmed at the thought of 27 nine-year-olds entering my door on August 12. However, I know that the Lord will be with me.