First Week in the North!

It has been a frigid week in “The Valley!”  I made my trek to school in -6 degree temperatures on Tuesday morning with no delays or cancellations!  As soon as I got to school Mr. Steinfelt and I went to the office to tell the staff that I was going to be here for the long haul.  I was then handed a staff badge as well as a faculty parking pass.  As ridiculous as this may sound, it was when that parking pass was handed to me that it finally sunk in.  For the past six years I have had to display a student parking pass in my car in order to park on the school campus.  I am not a student anymore! A new chapter has begun.

Athens School District has had five or six snow days already this year, which is pretty typical.  They do not, however, build snow days into their schedule, so the seniors are starting to get a little impatient as their graduation date keeps moving back!  The snow days have pushed the schedule back, meaning I am delayed in picking up classes.  I was originally scheduled to pick up the two sections of Horticulture as my first class, however, with the schedule shift, I will be delayed by at least a week.  For this week, that meant that I observed classes and helped out whenever and wherever appropriate.  

On Tuesday, I began working with a student who is completing and independent study project to collect food and supplies needed at the Ronald McDonald House in Danville.  The student worked to develop a proposal for getting the entire school involved in the efforts.  The deadline set for the event was February 14, so therefore it was not possible to include this in our FFA Week plans.  Details are being finalized with the principal today, so the student should be able to go forward with everything next week.

Wednesday was another day of observation.  The highlight of the day was helping freshman work on applying for the Give the Gift of Blue program offered by National FFA during my PM Advisory.  I thought this was going to be a simple task, but it turns out high school freshman still believe that 250 words is a lot to write!  I had three students working on jacket applications, and one senior working on the National FFA Scholarship.  Majority of the period was spent getting everyone set up with their AgCN account.  I was very thankful for the training we had last week from Mr. Kevin Keith!  We then realized that certain information would not save when you logged out and logged back on, so the students shut down their computers with about four minutes to go until the dismissal bell.  In those four minutes I lost any cool points I had from being the new student teacher.  I let the senior go because we have an open campus, meaning seniors in good standing (no zeros on assignments, no failing grades, no detention, etc.) are allowed to leave the building during lunch, study halls, and advisory periods.  Therefore, she was not required to be there.  The freshman thought that I would then let them go, too.  They tried every excuse, they wanted to go back to their homeroom, they needed to stop at their locker before they went out to catch the bus, yadda, yadda.  They were highly disappointed when I made them stay in the room until the dismissal bell.  They all made it home just fine, too!  No busses or rides were missed, imagine that!

Thursday and Friday were spent on mid-term review.  Each class asked questions and then talked through important information that has been covered throughout the year.  I learned how to run the copier, and all the ins and outs of what times are best to make copies.  I also saw the importance of planning ahead, especially before mid-terms, when every teacher in the building is testing every class within a four day time frame!  

As I look into next week, I will pick up my first class on Wednesday, following mid-term testing on Monday and Tuesday.  I will now start with the FFA/SAE class with a unit on leadership, specifically geared towards FFA Week.  I have 12 students, 5 of which are officers, who will be working towards understanding and developing leadership skills and plan FFA Week.  We will only be in school for three days during FFA Week, so they will be challenged to make those three days really count!  I am really excited to start teaching this group of students!  The snow days did mess up my plan, but with some flexibility it will all work out just fine!  Plus, I hear Monday is supposed to be our coldest day of the winter up here, so that is definitely something to look forward to as well!