Well, the beginning of the new school year starts tomorrow. Yikes! While it’s only a half day, I’m still not sure of what to expect. The kids were rough last year. Albeit, I did start five months into the year and the kids had no continuity. They started with a sub for the first month and a half and then had a full-time teacher who gave notice after a little more than a month.

On Friday, I finished up days of orientation that proved pretty disappointing. It was great seeing friends, old and new. You see, there are changes going on at school this year involving small learning communities. The part I’m to play seems loose at best, but I’m keeping an open mind because I know my role as art teacher isn’t part of the usual suspects of a small learning community. Plus, the “normal” benefits — working with the same kids for two years straight, getting to know them as a result of that, having continuity within the curriculum, etc. — have more limited impact to me because I don’t see one or two grades during the year; I see all grade levels (though, not all students) in one year.

Like I said, I’m hopeful. My wife took a part-time, in-class support job in a district not too far from us. Her orientation had a gentleman by the name of Spencer Henry come in and give them an awesome presentation called “The First Days of A New School Year.” I say it was awesome because I have been using the notebook he provided is attendees to formulate my own action plan for the first few days of school. I can’t blame him if his ideas–which are partially his own and also borrowed concepts from other prominent educators on classroom management and the first days of school–because I know I haven’t taken the time to absorb it all. But, my hope is that I will continue to take it all in and it will benefit my students (and me). I’ll keep you posted.