Day 1

I survived Day 1 of school! I didn't even feel too exhausted until I got home and ended up taking a short nap before dinner.

I greeted all the students one-by-one at the door and let them know where their seats were. As a start-up activity, all the students completed short forms letting me know something special or unusual about them and something that could help me remember them and their names. I got some great answers. I also asked them to indicate whether they had Internet access at home, and I was happy to learn that almost everyone does. That will make it much easier for us to do projects online and to maintain a "green" classroom. I also asked on the form if they had email addresses and knew how to access them from a web browser. Some do, but I will definitely have to suggest to many of the parents that they help their children get access to an email account for easy transfer of documents to and from school. I also did a short introduction to the class and my background, and I distributed of our literature textbook for home use. Student homework for Thursday's class is to make a name tag tent card to place on each desk tomorrow. I wish I were better at learning names. I know almost all the students by sight from seeing them in the library last year, but learning names is another story for me.

Tomorrow we will go over the welcome letter for parents and students about class expectations. I am planning to have a printed class set of the letter for students to read during class, but not send home the hard copy unless a student needs it, since the letter is on my class blog. And, instead of having parents and students sign and return the letter, I am going to have them fill out a Google form as acknowledgment. The form will also allow me to capture student and parent emails in a spreadsheet document. Hoping this goes well!

I didn't sleep well anticipating the first day with students, but I think I will sleep well tonight!