More Meetings

Today started off with the full FOCUS meeting. We went through the basics and set up when we would have our ongoing professional development meetings, and tried to figure out when to have more full staff meetings. The problem is I work in the mornings, Steve (who I share the room with) only works afternoons, and Simone, who does career guidance, only works Mondays. So we will be having weekly Monday lunch meetings with everyone, and I may get paid for an extra half an hour. The principal backed me up on not having meetings after school where I would either have to wait around for three hours or leave and come back. After lunch we discussed how we are going to run the first week of school, with orientation, team building and schedule making. Next week Monday is Labor Day, and then on Tuesday we have interviews for potential incoming students. So in effect we have one extra planning day. I still have until the 14th before I start teaching.
I have now asked for textbooks, and hopefully I will get them. I actually have plenty of textbooks, but not the ones that the district is currently using. I am also trying to get the teacher's editions and the associated materials. The advantage of lining up my curriculum is that other math teachers at Alliance (other campuses) have done a lot of work aligning it with standards and developing learning targets. There is also a suggested pacing chart for the class. Some of the teachers do not share my desire to align the curriculum on the theory that we are an alternative school, and the students transferring in have probably already failed the district curriculum so I should do something new. Being a new teacher, I wanted to start with what is supported and work from there.
The main issue as I see it, is that the units in the texts do not always fall nicely into 18 day blocks. So I will want tests to see if students learned what I was trying to teach in the block, but these will not coincide with the end of the unit. Which will give students another opportunity to master the necessary concepts. I have also found that for the most part once a student starts taking math, they tend to stick with it until they complete their full year of credit in the class. So I will probably have a fairly consistent class, but it may sharply decrease half way if a lot of the students only need a half credit in that class.