Tuesday: If it's a Day 1, I have a prep first period, followed by ILP, where about 10 high school students complete work for their online courses in my classroom. I just take care of administrative things for them, mostly, and am able to do some more prep. I have 15 minutes of indoor supervision during the lunch hour, then teach Spanish 30 for 85 minutes in my classroom.
My class has shrunk from 11 students to 9, which makes for an interesting dynamic. The course involves blended learning: we use pre-created materials on the Alberta Distance Learning Centre and I supplement this with in-class activities and instruction. The class is very relaxing for me, as the students are cheerful, talkative, and motivated, and having a pre-designed course makes planning much less daunting: I can simply tweak what's already there.
After this, I have 85 minutes with grade 8s and 9s (19 students down from 21) for my option class in the fitness room. This class is a completely different story, and I've been struggling a lot with classroom management (students want to use all of the equipment and we've had a few near misses already, which is a bad sign for me as a former health and safety professional). I'm trying to determine how to address these issues by evaluating and tweaking my instruction and considering whether the outcomes for the course are even appropriate or useful for these students. I designed the course myself, so everything is pretty much an experiment at this point. I am grateful for the advice and sounding board of the school's PE director (who's a few years younger than me) and the Ed Assistant who works with one of my students full time.
Speaking of wonderful colleagues, I have at least one teacher per day ask me how I'm doing and how things are going. I've benefited from debriefing with colleagues and having them reassure and encourage me. They've also been amazing about responding to my solicitations for advice and help, whether it's related to subject matter, age group, or specific students of concern.