Our Trajectory

We have been with our students for just over 20 hours now, so it's been enough time to give you an idea of the progress we've made.

First just a few thoughts about the last two days. Yesterday was the best day I had individually in my class, and the best day for our team as a whole. Engagement was high, systems worked, and accordingly, there were fewer behavioral challenges than previous days. Monday, the previous day was tough and a bit demoralizing, so it was really great to follow it up with a strong day. Then today happened... 

Today was incredibly challenging from start to finish. I think miraculously, for the first time, before a single student entered, I had my whole class set up, with materials planned and organized in different places so that distribution would be smooth and dead time would be minimized. The day started off decently enough, I reintroduced my name and we started an art activity around rain-related vocabulary. It was good. Then sweet little Aaditi, caused a bit of a scene. My teacher radar missed her fooling around with her beaded necklace, which promptly exploded into 30 tiny red balls flying all over the place. Students got up, ran around, trying to catch these bouncing little things. Calming that down, then moving on was a challenge. Honestly, it was difficult to get control back after that episode.

On a day like today, it feels like I've made no progress. But teaching, and starting a school, is often like this. You have ups and downs, but the trajectory is often positive. Hopefully tomorrow will go better than today, but until then, let me tell you a bit about what our school is like after 20 hours.

-Since our first day when many students were crying entering school, and throughout the day, we now have smiling faces throughout the day on all of them.

-We have improved our bathroom and recess procedures (lining up to go to use the toilet, hand washing, returning to class to eat lunch, and lining up again to wash hands and returning to class) from around 48 minutes to 25 minutes.

-Over 90% of students know the expectations of how they sit

-Students are comprehending in English

-Ambran has kept his pants on every day since the first...

These are just a few of our highlights of progress after 20 hours. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens over the next 20.