One day down...

Phew.  Day 1 is over.  For whatever reason, it's the day I dread the most out of the whole year.  Maybe it's going back to work, maybe it's not knowing the kids, maybe it's not having a set plan.  For whatever reason, I'm always happy when it's over.  How about next year we go straight to day 2? :)

Everything went well, I think.  One of my 2 precalc classes was a bust because of a class meeting (I was left with 8/29 kids in class) so I just let them sit and relax and work on an assignment I'd given them to be due on Monday.  The other ones went as I was hoping; the plan I'd laid out went pretty smoothly.

Here's what I did:
1.  As the kids walked in the room, I had them grab a notecard and put their name and birthday on it.  I told them to make it pretty (had markers out).  Some did, some didn't.
2.  Showed the slide of the plan I'd made for today (names, feedback, quiz, homework problem).  Some freaked out when they saw that they had a quiz, some didn't.  I think many of the kids worried quietly about it.
3.  Names. (How do I pronounce it? What do you want to be called?)
4.  I tried to get them to talk to me about what they were expecting for the year and what they've heard.  Both precalc classes were pretty good about this; both had kids say that they heard I was good and explained things well.  Yay. :)  I had jolly ranchers to toss to the kids who offered suggestions.  Ended up throwing one out the back window.  (Oops.)
5.  Quiz about me.  Some kids didn't read the directions and were like "But my answers aren't on here" thinking it was about them.  Read the directions, people.  I don't like all the attention, but that was a fun thing to do.  I gave candy to the winners (10/14 right was the highest).  On the back of the quiz I asked them to give me 5 numbers that apply to them.  Lots of kids did stuff like their birthday or their age or their soccer number.  I just finished looking through two classes, though, and I've gotten some other info.  One kid gave a year that his parents got divorced, one gave a year that her mom beat cancer for the third time.  It's amazing what they want to share when you give them an opportunity!
6.  Logic problem.  I gave the same problem to Precalc and Algebra 2.  It might've been too tough for Algebra 2, but it got them thinking!  I tried to channel Dan Meyers and not help too much ("Be less helpful" is going to be my motto for the year.  I swear.) but I didn't want the Algebra 2 kids to not even try.  I helped understand the problem and get them started.  We'll see if anyone comes up with the right answer tomorrow!  In Algebra 1 I gave a fun problem about girls and backpacks and cats and how many legs.  It was driving them crazy!  One kid said he was really annoyed by the problem and was going to keep working on it until he got it.  Yes!
7.  End of class.

Tomorrow starts the real stuff.  Hopefully it'll go as well.

Now I get to go home and see how my little guy enjoyed his first day in first grade. :)