New Year, New School, New Everything

Honestly, until now, I haven't had much of an opportunity to update this because I haven't had a chance to catch my breath. Here's the happenings since mid-August:

Aug. 22 - Went to the new teacher fair - what a waste of time. The only thing I really went for was my placement. I got the info and went home, excited to discover where I was placed. At least I was until I found out that I was assigned to an elementary school in the East Bronx. I'm not an elementary teacher, and while I am certified for elementary theatre, I doubt that's why I was being sent there. I let my recruiter - a wonderful woman hailing from Texas who helped me immensely - know what was up and she was on the case.

First days of Sept. - The DOE sent out our new assignment information and while I was being sent to a high school, it was still in the East Bronx. SuperRecruiter was on it again, trying to get me switched to Region 10 or 1 (I'd signed up for Manhattan - coming in from Jersey, anything else was a pain). Yet, I still had to report to the school in the Bronx on the 6th to get paid.

Labor Day Weekend - Last blissful days where I forced myself to have fun on a mini vacation.

Sept. 6th - It took me four trains and almost 2 hours to get there, but I showed up for work at 8am. No one knew what to do with me or where to put me, so I spent most of the day standing around. I met the English Dept. and they were really great. A waste of a day mostly.

Sept. 7th - I showed up at the same school with the instruction to go to the Brooklyn recruiting fair that afternoon to get everything straightened out. I really liked the school. I met the principal and was asked if I would consider Special Education. I have experience in Spec Ed, so I gave it some serious thought that afternoon. I emailed my recruiter to let her know that I had opted to stay at the UberHuge High School in the Bronx - the whole "devil you know" thing.

Sept. 8th - I left the afternoon before thinking I knew what was going on, but when I got there, the region transfer I had requested two weeks before had gone in overnight. So, again, I waited as everything was sorted out. The first class I met was my 5th period class. I also had a 6th period and an 8th period ESL that was going to be switched off my program shortly.

Sept. 9th - Met the rest of my students, did some "getting to know you" activities. One student in my 6th period class actually told me, "Miss, school is not for games." He was dead serious. Ugh.

Sept 12th - I finally figured out (mostly) what was going on and had a decent day. The ESL class was moved to someone else, and I was given another English class 1st period. I now had 5 Freshman Self-contained Special education English classes.

Sept 13th - I met my 1st period class for the first time - they were a little rough because they liked their teacher and all of the sudden she was gone. The tested me at every turn.

Enough for now... I'll write about the rest of September and October next time.