I apologize for being less active on Hive the past couple of days. Since Friday, I've been back in gear as a special education teacher for early childhood.
Unfortunately, Friday's prep day wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. The district hadn't assigned my students yet, which meant I couldn't access their files or get any background information. Unlike with older grades where I could check in with past colleagues, many of my new students are new to the district or school. This means I'm currently waiting on the district to finalize everything before I can dive in.
My classroom is definitely not ready yet.
Over the weekend, I focused on relaxation. Honestly, my teaching job can be anxiety-provoking, especially when I'm unsure about what needs preparation. So, Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to spending time with my two kids. This year, my oldest starts kindergarten, which makes me a little nervous – but mostly excited for him to experience school and make new friends. I hope we've prepared him well to avoid some of the negative social interactions I've witnessed in some schools due to underdeveloped social skills.
Today I wasn't able to accomplish as much in my classroom as I'd hoped. This is because I attended a professional development session on the framework for transitional kindergarten. Unfortunately, I later learned that the one transitional kindergarten student assigned to my class was actually misplaced and should have been in another class.
As a result, I spent three and a half hours in a professional development session that likely won't be relevant to my class this year. That time could have been much better spent setting up the classroom, including preparing materials, arranging seating, and gathering student names and photos (perhaps from last year's students) to get ready for the first week of school.
Tomorrow, I'll be stuck in professional development for the first three hours of the day. Ideally, I'd like some time afterward to return to my classroom and prepare, but unfortunately, my instructional assistant, who I'm eager to meet with, will also be in a meeting.
I do have one space in my classroom done so far.
This is quite inconvenient. Then, directly after school tomorrow (since I teach kindergarten), we have an orientation/open house from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. Fortunately, for Wednesday, when the students finally arrive, I don't have many nerves, as most of them are returning from last year's class.
I do hope to do this my students again during the first or second week.
So, that's the update! I'm back in the classroom, excited (and stressed) to teach again soon. Balancing that with spending time with my growing kids will keep me busy, so I might not be on Hive as much. However, I'm committed to this community and have some goals to stay accountable. I don't want to disappear completely – I still want to help out and be a part of things here.
Quality Content: I aim to publish at least one good post a day. This could cover anything from travel experiences and gardening tips to documenting my kids' epic quest to collect a metric ton of trash! Once I am healed from my injury and working again my workouts don’t count towards this posting goal.
Engaging with the Community: I also want to actively participate in discussions. This means leaving thoughtful comments on ten posts a day, whether from people I know or new faces on Hive, or just those people whom I haven’t communicated with yet . I'm aiming for comments that add value and spark conversation, not just generic support like "Great post!" or "Good job!
I'm inching closer to my 10,000 goal thanks to a recent fiat investment. Hopefully, I'll cross the finish line in the next month or two!
I'll do my best to keep up with this, though I can't guarantee I'll manage it every day. On weekends, for example, when the kids are asleep, I might need to catch up on comments to maintain my goal of posting 10 thoughtful comments daily. I'll definitely make an effort to reply to any comments on my posts, especially if they show genuine engagement.