I Survived! My first day at ISG

Well.... the big day finally came: THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

When I woke up this morning it was super blustery and kinda startled me with things hitting my shutters.  So needless to say I was up at 5:00am this morning.  Perhaps nerves, excitement had a little to do with that, although I can't say I registered those emotions.  I think I've just been really overwhelmed with everything and wasn't sure what to all expect.

Up and at 'em I went with a coffee in my hand.  Now due to the humidity, I am feeling very doubtful that I'll be doing my hair (curling or straightening) very often.  Pretty sure it'd be a moot point.  But since today was a big day, I thought "Why not straighten it?"  So I did.  Or perhaps I should rephrase that, I tried.  Why "tried" you ask?  Well the other day I had straightened my hair and everything worked fine with my adaptor. And....my straightener had all the qualifications to work accordingly with it.  Well....no!  No such luck.  Not only did the straightener not work, but my adapter (the only one I had) died as well.  OF course, being a big day, I had already straightened half my hair with the other half still pretty wave. *sigh* What's a girl to do?  Back in the shower to wash it out and throw it into a ponytail.  What a start to the day!  Needless to say, I think everything turned out pretty good.

Bring on the kiddos!

So off to school I went.  And what a day I had!  It was such a whirlwind with so many new things, routines, and faces that I'm surprised I didn't get lost in the hubbub at times.  We started off with all the elementary school meeting in the gym.  Boy, was that interesting! Students, parents, staff, oh my!  And we were all together warming up the gym.  I liked how we started this way.  It was fun to see all the students together, eager and excited.  Plus we got to meet many of the parents and congregating as a whole seemed to bring the school together for this important morning.

After a few introductions and welcomes, we were off to our classrooms.  This is when I really got to see my class.  In the gym I met many of my students, but we were grouped as a grade 3 bunch.  I have to say that I really lucked out!  I have a great group of students! (Hopefully this isn't just the honeymoon phase lol).  They are pleasant, sweet, kind and hard workers.  I am super excited for this to continue throughout the year.  Now I have to note that I only had 11 of 15 students, but still.  And, one of them even gave me a first day of school gift! I couldn't believe it! What a sweetheart!  Totally made my day and made me feel welcome. :)

Our day took us through the usual routines of greetings, introductions, classroom expectations and of course the chaos known as supplies.  This is always fun for elementary teachers especially when they aren't sure what the school supply list was, what the books are all really needed for, the books look different than what one is used too (aka the math "notebook" is grid paper), etc.  Regardless, we got through it!  Yay!  Now we are ready to start learning and getting into knowing the class.

One activity I did this year was I gave each student a bit of playdough. They then had to make something to represent their summer holidays.  This was a great task as they got to explore representation through kinesthetic means.  We then did a showcase and each student presented their items and told about their summer.  This was a really good indication for me on everyone's english speaking skills as many of my students speak another language first (if not two or three).  I was so proud of the work the students did!

Another activity we did, was I read the story "Stellaluna" to the children.  We talked about being special and appreciating ourselves.  They then did a writing task for me where they wrote about what they are good at and what makes them special.  I have to admit this was a "fly by the seat of my pants" activity, but it worked out well and I got a very good indication of my students' writing abilities.

Oh, and after library today we ha about 20 minutes before lunch of which I decided to expand on the library lesson of dictionary skills.  So back in the classroom, in pairs students worked to find words in the dictionary.  We discussed how they did it and how we can efficiently find the words we need.  It was great to see they synthesized finding the letter the word starts with and using guide words and working down the letters of the word to find their target.  It was actually super sweet to see how excited they were to find words in a dictionary. I'm going to love this group!

Adjusting to a new school can be difficult at times, but I have to say that I work with a great bunch of people who have made this transition easier for me.  There are some things I'm going to have to get used to:

a) Eating lunch in a cafeteria.  Lunch is part of the students tuition so they all go to the cafeteria for lunch.  Actually, we walk down there as a class.  They have some REALLY good lunches there!

b) Meeting in the morning in the gym.  There are no phones or paging systems so we meet here, do an anthem (they do a different one from a different country each morning), hear announcements and then we're off.

c) Security guard on the premises.  Serge (sp??) is a great guy and it's nice to have a smiling, friendly face to greet you upon entering school.

d) No bells.  You have to be very aware of the time.

e) No afternoon recess.

f) Snack is part of the morning recess out on the front area of the school.

g) Lining up downstairs for parent pick up.

Please not that none of these are "bad" at all.  Actually very interesting and enlightening to be a part of.  Just takes some adjusting to.  I also forget what it's like to be the new person in a school as I'd been at my last place of employment for 5 years.

Overall, it was a GREAT day and I'm looking forward to many more to come with Grade 3 Purple!  We'll be starting a class blog so feel free to check it out: rsimonsen.blogspot.it

So what does one do afterschool on the first day?  Well remember the hair straightening and adaptor incident from earlier this morning?  Yep, I had to fix that.

Downtown I went and ......

So now I can try this again tomorrow!  Plus my phone is charged meaning I have wifi and skype capabilities.

Can't wait for tomorrow!  Let the teaching begin!  Excited to get to know these little ones that will be "mine" this year. :)

Arrivederci!