First Weeks

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. ~Winston Churchill

Play is the beginning of knowledge. ~George Dorsey

Normally, I like to begin these things with a quote, but today I found two quotes which address what is on my mind. The first, I think, is a pretty good summation of where we are right now. The first six days of school went by pretty quick. We talked about rules, schedules, more rules, goals, some rules, and just for fun, a couple of rules. Textbooks were distributed; seating charts arranged, but, alas, the beginning of school is over.

This, much like the end of school, can be a tough time to wrap one's head around. We are still learning each other's names, developing routines, and trying to find the proverbial "groove" while at the same time pressing forward as though we have done it all before. It is always tricky figuring out how to go from the mentality of the first day into the reality of the first assignment, but that is where the second quote comes in.

Tuesday afternoon, the faculty took a personality test, which identified each of us by one of four colors depending upon our responses to pictures, descriptions, and questions. In the end, I discovered what many people probably already knew about me: I am very, very orange. In fact, with a possible high score of forty-eight, I scored a forty-six for orange. What does this mean besides the fact that I have incredible school spirit? Well, according to the people who created the test, it means I like to have fun with just about everything I do. We were given some handouts that describe how people of our "colors" might behave as educators, students, parents, and children. I will give you look at what kind of a teacher someone as orange as I am tends to be:

-enjoys an acive classroom -seeks to energize students
-makes learning fun -expects student involvement and compliance
-uses competitive games and activities -unstructured discipline
-spontaneous, flexible presentations -hands-on, immediate applications
-uses a variety of action activities -strong use of innovative approaches
-learning linked to "here and now" -emphasis on immediate relevancy
-uses media

Now, I don't know how much some of these apply to me, but I do know that I want some of them to be true. I can tell you that I certainly enjoy an active classroom as long as the activity has purpose. I would love to think that I energize my students; I know they energize me. I hope to make learning fun. I have found that anything I have really been able to retain over the years was initially presented to me in a way that made me want to learn it, so I want to deliver that kind of instruction to my students.

I don't know how well I will achieve these things on a daily basis, but I feel like we are off to a fantastic start. I hope we can keep charging forward, together.