Day two... check

I made it through my second day of teaching without a scratch on me. My kids are still scared of me... this is still good.

We talked about malleable intelligence today and they got really into being able to define malleable for me. (In case you didn't know... it means flexible and able to be changed). I split them into groups and had them do puzzles together. The catch was that one group had all the pieces and box lid, one group had all the pieces and one group didn't even have all the pieces. We then related it back to the groups not being smarter or better than the others, some just had more tools. They did really well with the subject matter. They can recite the class theme (Knowledge is choice. Choice is power.) on cue and we're working on them being able to qualify it in their own words. They also have gotten really into the class point system which is cool. We haven't had any discipline problems... yet. We have a rules quiz on Friday so we'll see that they really know what they can actually get into trouble for.

I was observed today by a lady from the TEA (the people who gave us our lovely unacceptable rating). Man she freaked me out, it was a non-block day, I'd been told to just do ice breakers again. Thank goodness I had a lesson planned (that and my kids deserve better than busy work). She apparently gave me rave reviews to our content specialist. Yippeee! I think I'm going to end up always having someone in my room. My administration has to do observations, TFA does them, my HISD mentor does them and now this woman too. Boy howdy.

I've been forcing myself to call parents each day just to introduce myself. It's really cool to talk to them, so many of them care so much about their kids. They are so receptive and tell me anything that I need I just have to call them and let them know and they'll take care of it. I've even had a couple of have said they've never had a teacher call simply to praise their child. I'm hoping for a big turn-out at the open house next week (I'm giving the kids extra credit for getting their parents to come). I need to make very good friends with someone who speaks better Spanish than me... and quick... because I'm running out of parents to call who I know I'll be able to communicate with. I've already had a couple of kids just translate for me.

I've managed to get ahold of a hard copy of project CLEAR so tonight's project is trying to get a handle on our first unit. Oye. I actually think sorting through all this stuff is harder than college. Durkheim I miss you.