Ac-cen-tuate the positive

I am trying to focus on my excitement about starting a career in education and remain focused, positive and dedicated. Did you notice the word "trying" in there? Yeah... it's getting a little difficult and I'm struggling a bit with keeping to myself any criticisms or negative comments about my first few weeks at Tech School.

Here's the big glitch that's making me crazy: there is very little organization to this process.

Day one I came in and had a little chat with Program Director who mentioned some vague information, gave me a textbook and sent me off to an unused classroom to read over the materials sent to him by someone who teaches a similar class at another campus. I started in on reading suggestions on how to write lesson plans, organize material and teach in a way that covers the different ways that people learn.

Over the next few days I read the textbook and quickly discerned that while some chapters will be excellent for achieving the objectives of the class, others seem misplaced in the book. I highlighted and made notes. I wrote down ideas for assignments and discussions. I believed that I was teaching the same class to two different groups of students: a tech group and a medical group.

Yesterday I went into Program Director's office to ask about the medical group-- what will they be learning in their major classes here? I want to be able to tie in my class to their career path as a way of reinforcing the importance of what I'll be teaching them. It was only then that I learned that I'll actually be teaching the medical group computer applications: Windows and Office.

I knew that I could and would at some point be teaching those things but not from the start. So I was given a second text book and set of materials to read. Luckily, this course has been taught at Tech School for a long time so the lesson plans and assignments and all other materials are in place, all I have to do is follow them. Still, it might have been nice to know from the start.

And it's not just that issue that leads me to believe that much of this job is going to be me flying by the seat of my pants! I've been trying to work on my lesson plans since I was told that these are very important and need to be filed with the administration because the school will be undergoing an accreditation renewal in the spring. I wasn't sure how to format them. I didn't like the way my counterpart at the other campus wrote them and I don't think that the way he's structured his class suits me so I was starting from scratch. Well, maybe not 'scratch' but close to scratch. A little past scratch.

Yesterday, right before I left for the day, another teacher came in and asked, "Did Program Director talk to you about meeting with me so I can show you stuff?"

(That is a direct quote!)

In my mind, I was thinking, um, I don't think so, no, maybe, did he? What stuff are you talking about? I tried to be as evasive as I could, drawing her out, trying to figure out what the heck she was talking about. I'm still not technically sure.

Another issue is that she teaches in the afternoon and evening and I'm a day time instructor. So now on Monday, I can't commute as usual, carpooling, I'll have to have a separate car because she flat out refused to come in any earlier and with my child care issues, I can't really stay very late.

If this is about showing me assignment documents and not some actual instruction, I will be very ticked off. Just point me in the direction of the folder on the network and I'd be fine. I've pretty much forged this road alone already.

Today, in cleaning out the storage locker in the classroom I've been using, I found a lesson plan template with the school's logo on it. Hello? Could no one have told me that this exists somewhere?

I feel like there should be some kind of guide for new hires, new teachers, that not only outlines the policies of the school for students and teachers, but also provides these templates and forms. Still, I want to focus on the positives.

I love the freedom of this job already. I love that there isn't someone sitting behind me pulling puppet strings. I love the topics I will get to teach and I'm eager and excited to meet my students and try to make them excited too.