So yesterday was Orientation Day for PSII!! I left my house on the West Side at 6:45am, leaving me enough time to grab some Starbucks and then drive the hour north-east to Lomond, Alberta. If you have never heard of Lomond (as I hadn’t), it’s about a half-hour east of Vulcan and 40 minutes north of Coaldale. In the 2006 census, it was discovered that there are 175 people that live there. Exciting.
Lomond is the kind of small town where drivers always wave at other drivers, even when they don’t know them, because it’s the neighbourly thing to do. This makes small-town people feel at home, and makes city folk like me feel wildly out of place. There are about 7 roads, and only one large building – Lomond Community School.
So I got there for Orientation at about 8am. I met the principal on the way in from the parking lot and he introduced me to a bunch of teachers just inside the doors. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming! Then he walked me downstairs to my Teacher Associate’s classroom.
There are two huge bookshelves on the right as soon as you walk through the door. They are chock-full of books. Not textbooks, not necessarily even novel study book, just books. Any books. Any wonderful, amazing type of books. For the students to just take out! I knew right away we’d hit it off.
So I had a great day out in Lomond. My TA is wonderful and creative and supportive. She sent me home with three bags full of resources to get ready on my planning for March 9 – I start teaching Social 7/8 (unit on Confederation), Computers 7/8/9 (how to use Excel) and Language Arts 9/English 10-1 (novel studies on To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie).
So busy! And classes aren’t even over… they finish on March 4, which means I’m in crunch time right now. I have a Wiki project/presentation to do, a Current Events Analysis (1000 words), an individual IPP, and a 35-page unit plan outline, all due within the next three weeks. If you don’t hear from me, it means the giant pile that is my homework has toppled and crushed me beneath it. Let’s hope not!
Enjoy reading week – relax, work, take time for yourself! Much love. <3