We have successfully completed two weeks of this school year. That seems so crazy to me! It's passing in a blur but also feels like we've been at it for awhile because of the routines I've tried to set.

I am a creature of habit and I thrive on routines. I know that my students always have too, even if they don't realize it. I try to keep my daily routine as similar as possible to help establish a schedule that works for me.

This year, of course, it's a little different because I am in two schools. I spend three mornings per week at my elementary building and then after lunch I travel to the middle school (I'm there 5th and 6th hour every day). Two days per week I am at the middle school all day. I was a little nervous about the schedule because I thought it might make it hard for me to get into a good routine, but I have been given a lot of freedom to make this position work for me, and thus I think that has helped me to establish a workable schedule more easily.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are my travel days. We have late starts on Tuesdays and I thought it would just be easier to be at the middle school those days since that is the hourly schedule I follow.

A typical Monday/Wednesday/Friday for me will look like this:
5:30 am Wake up, Shower & Prep for School
6:30 am Leave the house for school
7:20 am Arrive at the elementary
7:30-8:30 am Elementary Planning time (Note: I take this time first thing in the morning since they don't start until 8:25 and it allows me to still follow the secondary time table.)
8:30-8:55 am Push in Kindergarten
8:55-9:35 am Push in First Grade (20 minutes each in two classrooms)
9:35-10:05 am 2nd Grade Writing*
10:05-10:30 am Push in 4th Grade
10:30-11:15 am Flexible (Testing, Paperwork, Make up Small Groups, etc)
11:15-11:45 am 3rd Grade Writing*
11:45-12:15 pm Lunch
12:15-12:45 pm Travel & Transition
12:48-1:47 pm 5th hour (I use this time to float around and offer support to any of my ELs who don't have a dedicated time during the week, including students I don't have in my 6th hour class but are on my caseload.)
1:51-2:50 pm 6th hour ESL Class**
2:50-3:10 pm Prep for the Next Day
3:10-4:15 pm Gym (Typically Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday)
4:15-5:00 pm Travel Home

*I'm only pulling out for two grades: 2nd and 3rd (convenient since that is what I taught last year!). This is because the EL students in those two grades are spread across multiple classrooms and with the schedule I have, it wasn't feasible to try to push in (one day a week of push in is not helpful). So I will be leading two small groups of writing activities 3 days per week with those two grades. The other grades, I am supporting all for writing as well, but since the students are grouped more easily into one class (or as with 1st grade where I can do 20 minutes each), it serves us all better for me to offer push in support with the teacher's current lesson.

**My ESL class is 6th-8th grade (so yes I do start my day with the smallest kids in kinder and end it with kids in 8th grade!). It's a small class of only 15 to allow room for any new students who come during the year.  This class is basically whatever I want to make it as long as we are working within the WIDA and CCSS.

A typical Tuesday/Thursday for me will look like this:
5:30 am Wake up, Shower & Prep for School
6:30 am Leave the house for school
7:10 am Arrive at the Middle School
7:10-7:45 am Prep for the Day/Finalize Schedule
7:45-9:05 am 1st Hour (I spend this time supporting a 6th grade newcomer in his ELA class)
9:09-10:08 am 2nd Hour (I spend this time floating between my other students whom I don't have a dedicated spot for; this means every time is a little different)
10:12-11:11 am 3rd Hour (I spend this time supporting a 7th grade newcomer in his ELA class)
11:11-11:41 am Lunch
11:44-12:44 pm 4th Hour (Planning) [Note it's 60 minutes due to the lunch periods]
12:48-1:47 pm 5th Hour (I spend this time supporting another 7th grade newcomer in his ELA class)
1:51-2:50 pm 6th Hour ESL Class
2:50-3:10 pm Prep for the Next Day
3:10-4:15 pm Gym (Typically Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday)
4:15-5:00 pm Travel Home

I really love my schedule. This past week I gave it a whirl and it worked out great. It definitely keeps me on my toes and I am moving around all day long. That is exactly the kind of change I think I was looking for when I started pursuing another job.

Plus, I have to admit that I love that I still have my foot in elementary but I am not confined to teaching the same kids all day for all subjects. The variety I have in my new job is exciting and it's really quite nice to have an excuse to visit other classrooms and see how other teachers set things up. (And I'm not going to lie, the fact that I no longer have to deal with recess, indoors or out, is a huge bonus! I'm all about kids getting outside, but I hated recess duty.)

I am really quite pleased with my schedule and my new end time allows me to hit the gym after work three days per week and still get home at a decent enough hour that I can spend time with my family without feeling like I'm always rushing for the next day. In addition, having a dedicated planning block every day is fabulous. (In my previous job, we had 3 planning blocks per week and they varied in length from 35, 40 or 48 minutes.) Having a dedicated hour every day is AWESOME and I get so much done at work that I'm not having to drag things home. Thus my evenings can be dedicated to family which is how it should be.

It's insane that we've already had two days of school. Granted the first day was a 1/2 day, but still.

I'm slowly learning my schedule and routine and it's a bit weird for me. I'm so used to being in the same place all day with the same students. I have to admit, I am LOVING the variety in my day, but trying to figure out schedules has been a tad daunting. (I'm quite positive that in another couple of weeks, I won't even have to bat an eye...in the meantime, however, I am making myself a cheat sheet because I'm sure that our first late start day is really going to throw me for a loop!)

Today was the first full day of school and also my first day traveling between my two buildings. I woke up super early this morning for some random reason. I fully expected that to happen the night before the first day, but I slept like a baby (has never happened in 14 years!). The second night, nope. I was wide awake at 4 am and no matter what I did, I could not fall back to sleep. I finally got out of bed and hopped in the shower at 5.

I left early enough to be able to stop at my middle school and drop off and pick up a couple of things before heading to my elementary. I'm so used to being the first one at school and when I got there at 6:45 am there were other folks there. I was impressed (especially because in my previous district, I was always told that secondary people "work to contract, no more, no less"). Waved hello to a couple of folks then took off to run an errand (yes at 7 am!) and then headed to my elementary and still got there 10 minutes before I was required to be there :)

My first hour of the day is planning so I was able to sort through the data I already had and do some calculating. We had some shifting of classrooms last week, just before we opened up school, so I had to figure out where some of my students landed. That was easy enough to do and then I was able to actually meet with and touch base with some of the other staff whom I hadn't had a chance to really talk to or introduce myself to. Looked through new kindergarten enrollment forms and found a few friends I will need to screen next week. (I'm sure there are more because it doesn't appear that all of the forms were in yet as they come from central office.)

I did some other scheduling and arranging and checking emails and answering emails. I also had a chance to touch base with my mentor. We share a family so that was nice to be able to connect with her about them and making sure that we have everything in place for those students.

I also got to finally finish putting up the bulletin board paper and borders on my closets (it had this really weird, old and ugly wallpaper on it) and create my Content and Language objectives area on the whiteboard. It's a big enough space that I can actually just write my CO & LO for each grade at the same time. I have some of those magnets that show a pointing finger so I figure when I have a specific grade in there, I will just move the pointer to the correct grade and voila. :)

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch and then traveling over to the middle school. The drive isn't that bad right now because the weather is nice, but it could get interesting when the weather changes. I am definitely going to have to plan ahead. It might actually be prudent for me to travel THEN eat on those days. (I taught elementary school for 13 years, I am definitely used to eating a meal in under 10 minutes if I have to!)

The only dedicated class I have is 6th hour. This class did not exist last year because there wasn't enough staffing to have a dedicated class (they had two ESL teachers in the district last year and now we have three). It's a mix of 6th-8th grade and some of the 8th graders, who slipped by not having to have this class last year because it didn't exist, are a little annoyed that they have to be in there instead of a "specials" class (like gym or art or the STEM classes). Alas, I am just going to keep it as positive as I can!

Part of me feels bad for them and I certainly understand their frustration...but it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it. I think it will get better for them when we get started with some real curriculum work -- when they are busy and engaged, it [hopefully] won't feel like they are being punished!

I do have a quite a wide range of students in there too, including three newcomers to the USA. Differentiation is going to be essential! I do have some FROG games that I purchased last year and I think they might even work for my middle schoolers. I am going to ask them tomorrow if they would like to earn game time on Fridays because it would allow them to practice some of the grammar concepts but they ARE games and who doesn't like games?!

As much as I know some of those kids are upset to be in the class (or at least are annoyed), I do believe that once they realize we CAN have fun and learn at the same time, it will be a good class. They have a ton of potential. I told them my goal is really to work myself out of a job -- to have them all do so well on the WIDA this year that they don't need me anymore. We shall see if I can motivate them to get to that point :)

Well, here we are.

It is the eve of the eve of the first day of school for 2019!

I am so excited for this year. I've made some big changes and thus far, all signs point to those changes being for the good.

I am always a nervous wreck the night before school. I'm positive that tomorrow won't be any different. I'm not nervous because I worry that I'm not a good or effective teacher. I mean, I feel like I know what I'm doing at this point, but I certainly still have those freak out moments of "what if they all hate me? What if I can't remember their names? What if I really can't connect with middle schoolers?!" [I know this last one is untrue because I've worked with middle schoolers in summer school and I seemed to connect just fine with the 8th graders I was helping at open house to get their IDs.]

I will tell you something I am absolutely NOT worried about. I am not worried that I won't fit in at my new district. I am not worried that I can't be myself. I am not worried that people will think I am trying to be something I am not. In every conversation I have had, from the other teachers to some of the support staff to a couple of principals, I have feel welcomed, supported and listened to.

On Thursday, I laid bare a few of my fears to one of my principals. I admitted it's my 14th year teaching, but I feel a bit like a first year teacher because so much is new. He was so gracious and said he thought that was normal but that everyone would help with any questions I have. And so far, they have.

I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a school year to begin. Partly because this is a brand new role for me and I get to kind of feel it out and make it my own, which is really exciting. But also partly because it has already been proven to me that I will be supported, appreciated and looked at as a member of the team.

I know the role I'm  in has had many iterations over the last few years because there were only two ESL teachers. Now that we have 3, the roles can include more co-teaching and support than it could previously. In some conversations with teachers at my middle school, I've mentioned that I probably would be visiting their classes if we share students. Not one single person gave me any indication that it would be a problem. In fact, they welcomed the idea. "Come on in anytime!" was the most common response.

I've spent some time this weekend putting together a spreadsheet of the schedules I do have. (One of my first tasks this week is to get a copy of the schedules of my students who aren't in my EL class but are on my caseload.) This way I can set up a schedule for pushing in to best support the students AND the teachers.

I was speaking to a science teacher at the end of our training on Thursday morning. I mentioned something about what I want my role to be. I said something about possibly helping teachers to make language objectives to help the EL students and said, "and honestly as long as I know what your objective is, *I* can make those language objectives and I'd be happy to do so." She seemed really thrilled with that and I suspect the other staff will respond the same way.

I'm sad to say I have never experienced such a positive culture in a school before. Ever. Now that I have, it really strikes me and gives me pause. I am not here to badmouth my previous experiences -- every school and team taught me something. I was there for a purpose in that moment in time. However, I'm also not going to lie and say that I don't see the major differences in my previous experiences and this one. Truly the culture is just different.

Every day something happens that makes me feel even more grateful that I made this move. So while I also know that tomorrow night I will probably be sweating bullets as the first day approaches, I also know I am going into a position that is going to allow me to be the teacher and leader I want to be.