Day three of new teacher training.  The morning was mostly taken up by a meeting with the district mucky mucks.  One interesting statistic was that since they began doing these new teacher orientations, and began using the Gates grant to train new teachers, the retention rate in the county has gone from 75% to 94% after the end of the first year.  The training certainly makes you mindful of what is needed in the classroom.  I wonder if this kind of support had been available, would I have managed to finish my education degree the first time around.  Hmm... probably not.  I think I gave up before I would have gotten this far.  But the support being given at the training is impressive.  If it continues, I think it should make us all better teachers, whether we have the knack for it or not.

Today we talked about the classroom environment, both facilities and attitude.  How to make the classroom a supported place, not a confrontational place.  I liked the suggestion of giving choices rather than reprimands.  "You can choose to give me the cell phone or put in in your pocket for the rest of the period."

I also signed up for the educational foundation's payroll deduction.  I always supported the fund at the previous school so I signed up for the same amount.  There were a couple of premiums for doing that, including a voucher for free school supplies and a nice polo shirt.  And I'm already used to doing the donation.  I'll have to look into when and where I need to go to get the school supplies.

The other JMS teachers are as eager as I do find out about the school and get started.  One more day of training.

On the sewing front, I had the chance to work a bit on the Halloween quilt.  Hopefully by this weekend, it'll be all put together.  I'm going to my dad's tomorrow.  I think I'll take the sewing machine again.

L has an interview at my old school tomorrow for the media clerk position.  I'd been told someone already had the job, but they called her today and asked her to interview tomorrow.  We'll see what happens.