The First Week...

Here I am, half-way through the first week. I've discovered a few things in the few short days that school has been in session.

First, those Boy Scouts know what they're talking about! However, their piece of advice: "Be prepared," should really have an asterisk. The truth is, one can only be somewhat prepared, especially when you are only one of 100 in a building and thousands in a district! As someone once told me, the world does not, in fact, revolve around me. (No matter how much I'd like to think it does!) No matter how prepared you think you are, something will always come up that you were not anticipating! Which, by the way, leads to my next discovery...

Flexibility is key. If you planned to work on Internet skills using your Online Classroom as an example website and find that it's blocked for students, even though you requested it be unblocked (only to discover it was unblocked... for teachers), make sure you have a back-up site!

Finally, know right from the beginning, you'll be in for some really late nights! Registering your students for their e-mail and blog accounts, creating Tech Cards (cards with all of their login and password information on them) for each student, planning for the next day, and planning a back-up option for the next day all takes time. A lot of it. I suggest an investment in a great coffee maker and go heavy on the grounds!

With all of that said, I can tell you this: when you see how excited your kids get the first time they power up that laptop and how their attention is focused on every syllable that comes out of your mouth (because you've already warned them, if they can't follow the rules and pay attention, they'd be working from a math book instead of a laptop), it'll all be worth it. This is going to be a great year! I can just feel it! :)