Day 3 - Oh the work

I'm starting to get overwhelmed already and I'm just getting started! After getting to school at 6:30 and not getting home until 4:30 (at least), I'm already exhausted! Then, I have to do the mom thing, the wife thing, plus all my extra stuff for school! I honestly don't know how two-working parent families do it! I imagine we will all get used to it.

I had a short day in the classroom today. All the 4th grade teachers had science training this afternoon from noon until 3:30, so that took up the second half of the day. The school is working with an AWESOME science program through Delta State University that essentially gives teachers science kits with everything done. It will save so much time in the classroom and be so great for the kids! It is wonderful!

One thing I did notice today in the classroom was some disorganization/chaos during research time in the computer lab. I think it can easily be said that we don't spend enough time on science or history (30 minutes twice a week for each subject) and today's science/history session was nearly worthless, in my opinion. My HT told students to research either The French and Indian War for history, or flowering and non-flowering plants for science. She didn't really give them any direction as to what to look for while doing this, just to print off good research. Needless to say, the kids went print crazy, printing everything they found (many things duplicates because they all went to the first result in the search engine) and not reading any of it. After 30 minutes in the computer lab, we had over 300 pages of printed material. I'm not sure what my HT is planning on having the kids do with it, but most of it is way above their level anyway! I think it would have been much more worthwhile if students would have had a few specified sites to go to and find specific information.

I'm going to start working on my first lesson plans tonight. My first real lesson will be in Mississippi History. I'm thinking of doing a jigsaw lesson, and I think that will work out really well as the students really enjoy working in groups.