In Service Week

After a whole 6 days of being the center of attention at New Teacher Orientation, all of a sudden we are just a few fish in a very crowded pond! There are so many teachers, it's unbelievable. Everyone seems to be at least small-talk-friendly, but not really a "hey, why don't you come to lunch with us?" kind of friendly. There are definitely cliques, but I guess the good thing about a big school is that ultimately I suppose I will find someone I can tag along with.

I met my mentor, as well as several of the English teachers in my very large department. Many of them are very young as well, and have only been teaching for a few years. That is refreshing to see, because it means they are very sympathetic to my position. One of the girls came over to my desk yesterday and gave me a printout of the units they taught last year, in order, and how much time was spent on each. Mr. Mentor is nice enough, but I think sort of old-school (I'm getting flashbacks of my Block 2 Observation experience). He is certainly willing to answer any questions, and help me with anything I ask for specifically, but he doesn't seem like the type who will continuously check up on and go over things with me on his own. I've only had a few brief conversations with him in the past few days. In a way, I would be more comfortable with a mentor who was a bit more... "motherly," I guess... but this just means I have to work a little harder to do it on my own, and to prove that I can do it on my own.

I'm so excited to see this school embracing technology the way it is. They have a school wiki which has all kinds of information on it for teachers. I've created my own teacher wiki to use as an easy web page reference for my students until I can figure out how the freakin' Mac programs work to create a real one. I swear, I can't find anything on that computer, and I'm so tired of everyone saying "You'll love it once you get used to it!"

I'm ready for my long weekend, but that just means next Tuesday will come around even quicker.