School starts on Tuesday. Right now I should be setting up my classroom. Instead, I am studying my class roster. I can learn a great many things from this simple list. I classify the notes into good news, possibly challenging news and "hmm". Here are some of those things:
Good news:
1) I have 20 students. This is great because i will start out with a full class. If I am lucky, I will keep the same 20 throughout the year.
2) 9 girls, 11 boys. Pretty even.
3) 18 out of my 20 are 7 or 8 yrs old. WOO HOO! 2 are still 6. What a difference it makes to have kids start second grade at 7 yrs. I am already exhaling. YES!
4) Only one of my students has a "behavior record."
5) 4 of my new students are siblings of former students. I think I have held them all as babies when they were born. How many teachers can say that about their students? How cool is that? I love working at a school for a long period of time. You get to know the familes, form relationships with them and watch the children grow and flourish. Very, very rewarding!
Possible Challenges:
1) 13 English Learners. 7 of those at the intermediate level, 4 at beginning or early intermediate and one ad early advanced. a little bit of a spread but for the most part close together in english proficiency. This year i have 7 English Only kids. This is the largest group I have ever had. They are the biggest challenge. Despite the fact that they are labeled English Only, you can never assume that they are truly proficient in English. These kids are usually the ones who are low readers or are really English Learners but their parents have not identified them as such, so legally, they don't get the specialized services.
2) One student has a chronic lice problem. Aside from the health issues, lice problems = attendance problems. I will have to handle that right away. Educate the parents.
3) One of my students has a behavior record. LOTS of hitting and kicking and toilet flooding. I will have to take care of that one RIGHT AWAY!
Hmmm:
1) I have a Sabina in my class. She will probably be my first and last Sabina ever!
I think this will be a good year. Three cheers for the 2009/2010 school year!
