First Day of School

            As a new teacher, the most stressful day has to be the first day. This day was especially difficult for me since I am a brand new teacher that is starting to teach at this school in the middle of the school year. All of the other teachers had a half of year to establish rapport and connections with their students, and there is me, a teacher fresh out of college with no actual teaching experience about to take a plunge into teaching dual language students.

            The way the school day works here is that students will start to arrive at school at 8 A.M. Breakfast is served in the gym until 8:20 A.M. Breakfast is usually composed of pilot bread with peanut butter and jelly on them and cereal. After students eat, they will sit and relax until the first bell rings at 8:30 A.M.

            However, this day was different, since our principal decided to have a small meeting to introduce me and explain his expectations of all of the students to this second semester. The one student came up to me when he found out I was the new teacher and told me that he expected me to be a lot taller than what I am. Nothing in any of my college education classes could get you prepared to face the remarks that your students will make to you.

            Once the first bell rang and we moved on to the first class of the day, I was really becoming nervous. I really felt like I had no training and definitely was not ready for this day. I did not know any of the students’ names and I had about twenty students in my Algebra 1 that I was teaching first hour. (All of the periods are broken into hour-long classes.) That really made me very nervous. But, all my peers (the other teachers) told me to do today was set up my expectations and rules for my classroom and introduce myself with a slideshow of my life and my experiences.

            As I stated earlier, nothing could prepare me for the questions that the students would ask after the slide show. Many of the students would ask me if I was married or if I had a boyfriend. And when I stated that I did not, they become very concerned. They kept telling me that I should be married and be having children now. (This is because I do have a few students that are married with children.) I tried to explain to the students that I do not have to be married at an early age, but explaining to my students was just not working. Instead, I used my backup plan and had the students explain to me facts about themselves so I can learn names.

            I will just say this: Icebreakers are not easily done with Yup’ik students. Many of the students do not like to talk out loud to the class so getting them to say something about them was like torturing them. Some of the students were extremely nervous that they were shaking. I have learned that I should try to get the students out of their comfort zones, but this might not have been the best way to do so.

            However, I decided that I would do the same introduction lesson for all of my classes. My schedule during the first two weeks of school was completely chaotic, since we did not know where to put students at. Finally, by the beginning of February, a schedule was finally made and I would be teaching the following subjects: two sections of Algebra 1, one section of Applied Mathematics, two sections of Earth Science, one section of Ecology, and one section of Junior High Study Hall. I am mainly nervous about teaching science courses since I am only certified to teach mathematics. And, the only science courses that I have taken in college were all biology or physics related, so that is no help of me. I feel like I am teaching this subject in the dark, since I struggle with the topics because it is not a subject matter that I am comfortable with teaching because I have no experience teaching it. This schedule would go from 8:30A.M. until 3:45 P.M Monday through Thursday.  Fridays were special since we go from 8:30 A.M. until 12:50 P.M. After 12:50 P.M. (that is the conclusion of lunch), students were dismissed, or if students played sports they would prepare to travel for that weekend.

            I am not going to lie, but my first day as a teacher was alright. I feel like I was more nervous than my students. This is because these are a type of students that I am completely not used to. I am used to teaching students from northeastern Pennsylvania and having these students was completely different than what I was expecting. I am going to try my best and educate these students to the best of my ability. I want to try to have these students do the very best that they can in both math and science classes.