The End is Near

Phew,
well it looks like I just might make it through this trimester. 4 classes, 3 subjects, 4 grades every day. Not the most pleasant 12 weeks. But I did volunteer for it, I could've said no. Oh, and it's been 4 classes, 4 grades, 3 subjects AND 85 kids every day. That was perhaps the most challenging part. If our school district motto is "every student, every day" I don't think that this workload was what they had in mind.
One more week to go and it's the easiest of all, Finals week. The week where finally they do all the work and I just need to grade it. Then of course, it's back to the start again, September all over again. The drawback to the trimester system is 3 startups a year. 85 new faces and names to learn.
But this time around it will be 4 classes, 2 subjects, 1 grade. This should be much less work for me on a daily and weekly basis. No more changing mental gears 3 times a day.
Oh and I'm going to be observed by the principal in a few weeks, just before the holidays. I'm not too worried, he's seen me before and I think he knows what to expect. I just have to think of something good to be teaching that day.

Stay tuned.

We're Baaackk!!

Off and running the 07-08 year is upon us.
And before it started last week it already promised to be a doozy!
While away on vacation during the week before school started I got a call from the Principal asking me if I would be willing to cover an extra section of Bio because it looked like my DH was going to be out for medical reasons for the first trimester. I agreed to cover the course. He said that I'd be compensated. I figure for a 10% raise I could stand a little suffering for 12 weeks. Well it's going to be an epic trimester. Fortunately for me the added section comes at the end of the day and is a prep I've had before several times and know my way through and it's about half full of students I had the year before, many of whom I like and of those that were less successful under my tutelage for one reason or another, they are removed from some of their peers from the previous year, so we'll see.

The other classes will be challenging in their own way. 9th graders, always an adventure, and the other a mixed group of upper level students some of whom I have had before.

I am in my 1st evaluation year as well to top it all off. So I have to not only rise to all the challenges that these classes will give me but document it and meet my goals and ace all my observations to assure my continued survival in the role.

stay tuned.

Saturday of the Year

Someone, a fellow teacher, once told me that July is the Saturday of the year. It's so true. Especially for teachers. The end of June is like a friday night, you kick back you relax and unwind, then it's saturday a long break with no expectations. But come August it's sunday, and the work week, the school year is looming.


I had sucessfully until at least this past week or so pushed school out of my brain. But it's back, it's creeping back in around the edges. Curriculum, lessons, ideas, fears, expectations, anticipactions.

I will survive, probably.
It's that unknown, the 'what's going to happen' which a little part of my brain knows will be gone once that first day or so is under my belt.

I did have one former student last week tell me that he was so excited to get back to school, that summer was boring and he was ready to go back. And I know that he was sincere in saying it. He's no high-flier bookworm either, he's an average kid who just digs school.

stay tuned.

Lovin' Summer

I have to say that I love summer. 2 weeks in and I'm exhausted from all the summerness. I know that I still have this nagging sense of work that will need to get done for next year. I'm still a rookie enough teacher that I need to be as prepared as possible for day one and that's not something that is going to take place in only that last week of summer, that week needs to be dedicated to set-up and copies and stuff like that only. NOT prep.

Summer so far for those keeping score at home: Running - 60 miles, Swimming - hours and hours, Pushes on swing - a million, Rolls on rug - 50, Lawns mowed - 4, Ceilings scraped - 1, Rooms rearranged - 2, Bicycle miles - 75, naps - 2, Strawberries picked - 6 quarts.

2 weeks is what I was told was necessary to really decompress from teaching, that only after that are you really ready to have a summer and to enjoy yourself again. I must say that that sounds about right to me. I didn't have the easiest spring term and it was really weighing on me but now it's gone, all gone. I came across the roster from it the other day ( in the room rearranging ) and it all felt like a distant memory. But a better memory did come back too. I made the cut and have been featured in a student film about their spring term experience, I'm now on YouTube!

Back to the rest and relaxation!

Summertime and the living is Sleepy

Well the first full week of Summer has come and gone and man is it exhausting!
Here I am thinking that summer is all rest and relaxation, wrong-o!
Summer is the time for exercise to kick into full swing, for the outside home projects to get started and never finished, for the kiddos to swim and explore and play.
Man-o-man and with only one week of it I'm bushed!

Summer right now, at least for the few days is peppered with the lurking 'summer work' from school. Applied for during the year it's work that we can do when there's more time and we get to wear shorts. What it means is more time in school abeit without our young charges, plotting the options for their academic futures.
Friday ends the fiscal year and any obligations I have to work until the end of August.

I did also this week take a few minutes when it was fresh in my mind to begin to organize the pile that my curriculum notebooks became over the course of the year. See on day one all my master copies of all assignments, assessments, and other materials is all in one place, a notebook with all the pages in nice plastic page protectors. But alas as the term unfolds the sheets come out and they never quite make it back in, they do usually manage to make it to the notebook but never all the way back to the right place and plastic home. So it's my summer task to spread out each course onto the dining room table and put it back in it's place.
One side effect I've found is discovering that I have almost no memory of an entire course I taught just this past fall! (and am scheduled to teach again this fall!!)
It's coming back to me but I had a severe case of "Baby Brain" from September until about Christmas. I'm certain that this year's eager young learners will be substantially better taught than last year! It wasn't that I didn't know the material, or cover it in a thorough way, it's just looking back I'm not sure that I covered it clearly as much as I will this next time around. I suppose that's always going to be the peril of a new Prep, not knowing if I'm going to hit it all exactly right. I suppose I'll find out with this year's new Preps.

Stay Tuned!

Packing and Unpacking

Finally the school year is over, the kids all gone home and the lights off, doors closed, parking lot empty. The whirlwind of exam week went by in a flurry of nervous excitement and adolescent angst. Now I'm off for a summer in the land of the angst-free, or at the very least the teen-angst-free.
I felt fortunate this year to be one of the ones who are staying. There were too many teachers and staff I've worked with for the last few years who have fallen to the budget axe. It was a bittersweet day around school as many well liked people left the school.
On the plus side I didn't need to bring my whole teaching world home this year, in fact I could finally unpack and settle in a little bit. I have worked in the same department for 3 or 4 years now and have not really had a space of my own beyond a desk. I've always felt like a squatter in my own department.
Well no more. I dumped 10 full file cabinets of old handouts and stuff from a teacher who left this year and proceeded to fill it with my stuff.
Nothing left to do but clear out some posters and stuff and make my room 'my own' in the fall.
Fun stuff!

5 lonely little days

and then SUMMER!!!