What's+New+This+Year?

=Welcome to 2011-2012!=

I'm sure you all had a wonderful, relaxing summer. I did not do as much relaxing as I would have liked, but it was still a pretty good summer. I won't complain. That said, we have to get to work now. School is back, and you all have some learning to do.

So, what's new?
Well, first off, lets talk about how I intend to do things in my class. I spend a LOT of time in here from now until June, so I really need it to be right for me. I'm sure you understand that. A goal of mine for this year? Well, better classroom management and control. Better organization. More timely grading and responses from me to you (yes, I have not been great about this in the past and I intend to remedy that this year). More activity, but much more control of the room by me. Will you all love these changes? Not likely, but the truth is, I need this year to be great, and that is how I think it will happen. I want you to be the best class ever (actually, I want all my classes to be the best class ever, its a little unfair).
 * 1) 1 Classroom stuff.

As I am sure you are aware by now, each teacher in this school will be under review pretty much all year. Mr. Faulkner, Dr. Butler, and Mr. Cox will be in your classrooms, all year long, and sometimes they may just "show up". That means teachers will have to "be on their game" all the time. I intend to do just that. I will share my lesson plans with you so that you know exactly what comes next, all year long.
 * 2: Annual Teacher Performance Review.

What I ask of you? Well, when an administrator is in the room, at normal. What?? Act normal??? Yes, act normal. Don't pay attention to them. They are going to be there, so you might as well get used to it.

Also, there will be quarterly assessments in every single class. Get used to it. We don't have much control over the ways the state is expecting us to be assessed, and this gives us the information that the people at the state level want. What will be on these assessments? In my class, these will be basically "mini-Regents" that cover what we have done for the last quarter. These will be included on your quarterly grades. Do well on them, please!

Yes, I said projects. I expect you to complete a project for each unit all year. What will you do? That depends.
 * 3: Projects!

So, what does this mean for you?
The first thing you will notice is how I interact with you. I will tell you this: I am not here to be your friend. If you end up liking me and my class, great. I enjoy teaching you, and will end up playing with you, if you can stay within the boundaries I am setting up. Fail to recognize the lines and you will find me to be less fun. Consider that for a minute. Can you live with it? Yeah, you can. In fact, I think you will find that in the end, you will learn a lot, and also have a lot of fun.