I have students!

WELL!

I am so overdue for an entry that I do not even know where to begin. I guess a really brief summary is in order.

I spent the past couple of weeks (those weeks between the end of TFA Institute and the beginning of the school year) doing lots of nothing. I tried to plan for the school year, but felt directionless.

Last week marked the beginning of in-service for Alief ISD teachers (Weds, 8/9/06 to be precise), and began the gradual increase in workload and panic that I have experienced. I visited my campus, started setting up my classroom, attended a ton of meetings, and finally learned what I would be teaching.

And then suddenly it was Wednesday, 8/16/06, and I was stepping into Alief Middle School as a teacher who was about to meet his students.

I have three classes of Intervention Mathematics. 1st period is a 6th grade class of 11 students. 2nd period is my planning period, and conveniently includes lunch. 3rd period is a 7th grade class of 11 students. 4th period is a 7th grade class of 12 students. Intervention Mathematics is a program for those students who failed TAKS, the Texas standardized test, during the previous year. My students are essentially the lowest performing math students in the 6th and 7th grade. To help these students out, we 'intervene' and make them take math every day for 90 minutes, as opposed to the normal schedule of math every other day for 90 minutes.

What this means is that my students are going to have a lot of time to improve on their fundamental skills, as well as tackle the new objectives for this year.

I am so excited.

A couple points of interest:
6th graders are adorable. They sit so still and quiet, and just look at you and you just can't help but love them.

A surprising number of students answered my survey question which inquired after their best friend with "None".

One student wrote that she was good at "Looking cute".

Another student wrote that he was good at "Spending money".

A surprising number of students wanted to grow up to perform in fields for the reason of helping other people, whether that be in medicine, law enforcement or others.