Today was a very productive day in the classroom, though the tasks I completed were, for the most part, small or mundane. I got more laminating done, put up titles for the bulletin boards, set out supply boxes according to my seating chart I drafted in May, and wrote note cards for my schedule chart. I also discovered the "warehouse catalog" for the district, and made a list of all kinds of supplies for my classroom. Thankfully, that money will come out of my team budget, which, I'm told, is rather large, and not out of my own pocket :-D

I'm also back in contact with my mini-team via email (That's my next door neighboor Liz, and down the hall Nancy) about when we will begin departmentalizing. We were really fortunate to have our schedules match this year, and decided that we will use 3/4 half hour blocks in the day to teach social studies, science, and language arts. I will be in charge of all three sections of science, Liz has social studies, and Nancy has Language arts.

Here's why I LOVE the idea of departmentalization:
1. I get to plan 2 less subjects every week.
2. I have the time and energy to plan my subject really well.
3. It forces me to make time in the day for all 3 of those subjects - all of which are important to me.

Here's the scary part:
1. You really have to trust your team, because you don't get a hand in planning the other subjects.
2. You are at the mercy of how well the other members of the team teach their subjects, and if a kid isn't being successful, chances are you have to deal with the parent issues.
3. You actually have 3 classrooms worth of parents to deal with and 3 classrooms worth of report cards to manage. YUCK.

This week is off to a good start, it seems.