Monday, August 24, 2009

The First Day of School

I'm much more physically lazy than I used to be. I can't be sure, but there's a possibility that this situation contributes to my continually expanding waistline. I'm just saying.

So trying to do some major fitness regimen isn't going to work for me, I need to start with something small. The alarms went off way too early this morning, but after rolling out of bed, I did some situps and pushups. That's all. I'll do the same number of each every morning, and increase the number by 5 next week. We'll see if I can keep up that routine for awhile. If I can, perhaps I'll throw in the elliptical trainer as well.

I got to school several minutes earlier than usual, got set up, and had a seating chart projected up on the screen as students walked in. I'm nothing if not organized.

Our new attendance program worked without a hitch today, and starting tomorrow we'll see if the gradebook component works as well.

You can't tell from the first day of school if a class is going to turn out to be a good class, but you can certainly tell if one is going to be a bad class. None of my classes sent the telltale "bad" message today, and for that I am thankful. I had one last year, and when I say bad, I mean really bad.

All in all, it's not a bad start.

5 comments:

Mr. W said...

ok reading your post sounded just like mine...about the whole class thing. too funny.

Just curious if you used a computer grade program (making the grade or micrograde) or if you did it all by hand. We have a new system ABI that we are supposed to use by next year. I tried it last year and it couldn't do half the reports and things a normal grading program can do. Let me say this...it wasn't intuitive. One example, in a grading program when you put in a score it calculated it automatically. With this one we have to check a box to say we are done. Is it a big deal? No, but is it necessary? No.

Technology is supposed to make life easier...not harder. And ABI makes it harder.

*jumps off soapbox*

here's my post on ABI
http://kwendland73.blogspot.com/2008/09/venting-anger-aeries-gradebook-program.html

& 1st day of school
http://kwendland73.blogspot.com/2009/08/thoughts-without-words-new-school-year.html

PeggyU said...

My uncle, a music teacher, also did a stint teaching a shop class (small school in a small town). This was several years ago. On the first day of class, a couple of boys got into an argument (which had apparently started before they came into class) and one stabbed the other in the eye with a screwdriver. That ... is a bad class!

Mike Antonucci said...

Start running, my friend. You'll never regret the decision (well, maybe a few times). Ask me how!

Unknown said...

It's 1:15 now, and first class is at 2:30. We'll see.

Darren said...

Mr. W, I used to use Grade Machine. Now we use this integrated program for attendance, discipline, and grading (it's called Zangle).