School starts

So after about a week and a half of getting settled into island life and getting my classroom and curriculum ready, the school year has finally started here at Kwajalein Jr/Sr high school. Students started on Wednesday of this week, and so I just finished my first week of classes leading into the labor day weekend. Here's a few shots of the school and my computer lab...

I'm teaching quite a mix of courses this year. I've got Introduction to Business, Business Law, Computer Programming, Computer Service & Support, as well as a section of 7th grade computer class and a section of 8th grade computer class. So it's going to be a busy year, as a lot of those courses are new to the school and so I'll be working on putting together curriculum as the year progresses.

I'll also be helping with technology integration in the district (surprise, right?), as we're going 1:1 on Chromebooks for the first time this year. I've got the Chromebooks inventoried and mostly ready to go, but just working out a plan on how best to distribute them to students. The staff will also need some additional trainings and ideas on Chromebook use and Google Apps, so I'll be leading a PLC on Google Apps for Education this year as well.

So what about the actual teaching? This first week has been good. My classes are small here (largest group is 13 kids), and the students have been great. Most every kid has been polite, well behaved, and fairly active in doing their first assignments. I know a lot of that has to do with class size and the local culture, but it just proves to me (in my head at least) that class size absolutely makes a massive difference in how a classroom functions.

I know that seems obvious, but there are many in the educational policy world that argue class size isn't a big deal... I challenge them to make that claim after teaching a class to 34 students, and then teaching that same class to 12 students. If every educational policymaker did that for a year or two, then perhaps everyone can revisit the class size conversation.

Anyhow, it looks like it will be a busy but exciting school year. But for now, it's time to enjoy labor day weekend. It doesn't hurt that this is a short walk from my place...