And so it begins, hoping this is the end of the beginning

About as skillful as a radish rose.
Ok, it began two days ago, but what the heck. It's been pretty crazy and I haven't even taught a proper lesson yet.

The first day was quite calm and everyone did their best and tried their hardest to their utmost. That was the first day though. However, I kept telling my CT that I thought it was a good group. And he kept telling me that it was too early to tell, which of course is the correct and proper response. But I'm comparing this from the hell of spring semester, so really this to me is all clover and honey and unicorns.

Not that I'm not experiencing students testing me. But I'm up for it. That's one of the good things that came from last semester.

GE is WAY different from EIB, and even WB. Same district, still Title I (but barely), yet so, so different. So different that "different" is the only word I can think of right now to describe it.

But in many ways some things are the same. Students are still generally lower in ELA than in math. There are still IEP kids. There are still behavior intensive kids. There are still teacher intensive kids. There are still both minor and major things to deal with. World without end, amen.

Those are the things that are probably found in nearly every California public school. Unavoidable. Here are the notable things so far that are different from my previous experience:

* I'm loving the level of individual classroom and school-wide discipline. WB had this level too, although EIB certainly did not. Definitely up my alley.

* OMG the amount of science instruction at the fifth grade level astounds me! MORE than once a week for an hour? MORE than just the textbook? My CT actually RAISES STEELHEAD TROUT AND RELEASES THEM INTO THE RIVER WHEN THEY ARE GROWN. Definitely one of the times when blogging in all caps is appropriate.

* It's nice to have a classroom with a non-leaking roof. Or dust bunnies the size of actual bunnies. Or piles of disorganized papers where student work gets lost and never found. Or pencils that are constantly broken into a million pieces and found strewn into even the darkest nether regions of the room. Or student notebooks that are always missing so that the student has to take notes on binder paper (or more likely, any scrap of available paper, even dirtied ones) which they will promptly lose once note-taking time is over.

Ack! Begone evil demons of last semester! You suck, and I'll probably have to face you again sooner or later, but right now, let me enjoy the eye of the storm!

Ok, bad karma mostly gone. Another scoop of waffle cone sundae will banish it for a good long time. Although I'm still having nightmares about behavior issues. That may never go away.