Getting...somewhere.

          I went to my room again today with my best friend, Amber.  It is all a little overwhelming.  There were piles of books and I'm not sure what to do with them.  I finally met the teacher that I have been texting.  Here is a little bit of background information.  There are four high school English teachers, one for each grade.  Two of those teachers left this year and the other two there I will refer to as Mrs. S and Mrs. H.  The other new English teacher has many years of experience and I am the only newbie newbie teacher, I say newbie twice because I am both new to the school and the profession. Mrs. S gave me a cart and told me that I can go through the huge stacks of books that lined my room and figure out the ones that I wanted to keep and put the ones that I didn't want in the room of the other newbie teacher.  I got rid of around one third of the books!  The other books I really don't know what to do with because I am not sure what books I am going to teach I didn't want to get rid of anything that had to do with American Literature.  I found two boxes full of the book The Catcher in the Rye so I might teach that instead of The Scarlet Letter, but then again I am not really sure. 
          My friend and I made quite a bit of headway, even with our two little boys running around fighting over cars and getting in the way.  Amber worked on one of my bulletin boards and got it looking awesome.  This is going to be where I put the calendar, but I needed to laminated the pieces and cut them out.

 

          We put my desk where I think I want it. I created a little bit of a box for me, but it is only space in the room that are off limits to my students. 

           I have been looking for a lectern for my classroom.  I tried a couple of places and couldn't find one that I liked our was in my budget.  Today I found one in the room of the newbie teacher.  I don't know if it was one of those things that the teacher in the room before had just left or if it was the newbie's lectern.  There were several other lecterns that looked the same floating around school.  Hopefully I get to keep it. 

          One of the things that I am slowly learning about the teaching profession is that it seems as if every question that I ask is met with unsure answers or are left hanging in the air for me to figure out on my own.  I am getting so stressed out trying to figure out what is really expected of me when no one will tell me.  I asked if there was a  classroom set of Scarlet Letter books, didn't get answer.  Asked if the Scarlet Letter was taught in that grade, no answer.  I asked if I was supposed to turn in lesson plans, when I am supposed to do the training to be able to teach AP classes, if there were any specific books or stories I was expected to teach, and about twenty other ones that have yet to be answered. 
           I will continue to muddle my way through my first year of teaching as best I can.  I hope that you will join me.