First week down

When i first got hired, I was told that I was going to be teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 and possibly one other class.  When I got here, my principal said that I was still in for Algebra 2, but my other courses were up in the air.  He finally decided that I would have 3 sections of Algebra 2 and 2 sections of Introduction to Statistics.  I guess they somehow heard about the infamous "All STAT & A Bag of Chips".

The class sizes are very small.  My smallest is 6 students and my largest is 15.  There are 3 math teachers and 2 math classrooms.  You don't need to be a math teacher to do that equation.  Being the new guy, I travel between a few different classrooms through the course of the week, but I do have my own office, which is quite nice.  Actually, I don't really mind not having my own room because that's the way it's been for me for the 2 years that I taught in Indy, so I don't really know any different.  I also had pretty small class sizes in Indy.  I think the only difference is that this is a private school, so I'm getting some extremely high achieving, very motivated students.

Our class sections are split into alternating 85-minute block schedules and the students only have 4 classes each day.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I have 2 sections that I teach and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 3 that I teach.  Then on Fridays, we have a modified schedule where we have an extended homeroom and the students have all of their classes for just 35 minutes.  So basically, I get lots of planning time during the course of the week.

I'm still feeling out where my kids are at in regards to their skills and what they have covered in the past.  But all of that will fall into place soon enough.  I'll probably have to start a study session after school at some point for those who are struggling a bit.  But all in all, I anticipate a very good year.  Actually, there have been a few times already where I can't really believe that I'm getting paid to do this.