Eighteen Days and Counting!

As I mentioned earlier I am starting a new school this fall. The first day for students is August 18th. This will be a completely new experience for me as I will be teaching middle school instead of high school. Also my new gig is at a gifted and talented school private school, which I suspect will be a much different teaching environment from the public schools I have taught at in the past.

Anyway, it is time for me to start considering the norms that I want to establish in my classroom. There are many different things that I need to consider.

• Discipline
• Homework
• Presentation Style
• Organization of Students Work
• Group work
• Seating Chart and Desk Arrangement
• Communication with Parents
• Website
• Grading Structure
• Retesting Policy

I am sure there are others but those are the ones that immediately came to mind. I am going to spend some time the next couple of weeks discussing these topics. Some of them (Discipline, Grading, Retesting) I will delay until I learn more about how the other teachers at my school handle them. I have always thought it was important to try and follow the norms at my school as much as possible.

Per usual I am very interested in what others think of these topics. Check back the next couple of weeks and let me know how you handle these in your classroom. Most of what I do in my room has been stolen from those around me.