First Day of School

Thanks to everyone who remembered my first day and wished me luck. It was a really great day. I didn't get very much sleep last night, my mind was running over all the things that haven't been done yet and all the questions I still have left to ask and the problems left to solve so I was a little stressed. But the day went well.

Our first 3 days of school are spent in Jumpstart Week where we acquaint the students to Paradigm's way in an assembly followed by a series of workshops. Today we went to the student government, commonplace book, and the school policies workshops.

The student government is made up of a legislative group who are all presidents of their class and an executive branch who are like the student body president. Each Mentor class (it's like homeroom) elects a president and then brings the class's issues to congress.

The commonplace book is basically an education journal where students can record ideas and ah-ha moments as they learn. It is meant just for them and is not graded or analyzed.

School policies are self explanatory.

Then we split down into our Mentor groups. I have about 13 students who are all great. They are very participatory and willing to contribute. We discussed the assembly message and talked about how to make that Paradigm shift. This was my favorite part of the day.

Our Mentor groups meet with us each day and in class we have opportunities to work on homework, read, or pursue our educational interests. This is where class presidents discuss school business. We meet one-on-one with students and we hold discussions. It is an unstructured time to learn.