The new school year is upon me. Even though I don't officially start back to work until Monday, I've spent the last two days at work. At first I wasn't quite feeling the whole back to school thing. I blamed it on all this fabulous summer weather we've had this year and that because I did work some every week this summer it didn't quite feel like the same break it's been in the past.
It was still a break in many ways though because my whole whopping average of two days a week of work this summer is light compared to what it will be as I head back into full time work next week. But I think I'm ready now. I'm excited about the upcoming school year. As most know I am changing schools for the first time in eight years, and even though I will miss some people and some things from my old school, I'm really excited about new beginnings that will come with this school year.
Plus I don't really feel that this year is a permanent situation so that kind of leaves me excited too because I can try something different this year with probably something different again next year. The school that first wanted to hire me last spring couldn't offer me a full time position. So according to the department chair at the second school that hired me the chair at the first school spent an afternoon visiting and persuading the other school to offer me a part time contract to fill my full time need. Lucky for me, it worked and the two schools are only three miles from one another. One is the community high school for one of, possibly the best areas in our school system, and the other is a full magnet that serves the west side of our school system. Keep in mind the district I work for has 25 high schools. They are both great schools so I'm pretty pumped about getting to experience not just one, but two, new school communities.
The two chairs also worked together to give me my well loved English 11 American Literature class, which is great, but I am a little worried about the boredom factor with this because I'm teaching it six times! However, because it's only one prep and I get to work out all the kinks after six lessons I think it will give me a great chance to work on the art of teaching. I should be able to put in lots of time to developing good lessons.
Aside from the boredom factor I have a few other worries too though. One, because I'm in two different schools which I rotate every other day because of block scheduling I'm afraid I'm going to show up at the wrong school on the wrong day. And two I ended up with a longer commute on the horrid city beltway that I got to escape for the year and half that I worked the other job after we moved. However, aside from the five months after Kenz was born, this will be the first time in my working mom life that I won't have to get kids up, ready, out the door, and dropped off all by 7:15. I think this will be a huge help to me. I'm not sure how well my husband will fare taking over that responsibility but I plan to be that over organized OCD woman again where everything is laid out and prepped the night before for him, me, and the girls.
We did have to switch sitters with Ave starting kindergarten and me switching schools so it does sadden me to say good bye to our beloved Miss Kate, but we will definitely be staying in touch with her. Now the girls are less than five minutes from our house so I think that will be helpful.
I was also asked to come back and teach the Fall English 101 class I taught at the community college last year so technically my week will be filled with seven classes, about 200 students on three different campuses. But I loved teaching that class last year. I think it's a great opportunity for me and again lucky for me it's a 345-500ish class so the two afternoons a week I have it I will still be able to be home to my family by 6:00.
We have Averi starting kindergarten and Fall soccer starting the week after next so it's going to be busy. It's going to be hectic at times but I'm ready. Here's to hoping it's a great year for everyone! I have the sappy kindergarten mommy post coming up soon.
Students will be sharing their writing on my Teacher Facebook Page. Like the page to see what they'll writing this Fall. It's going to be part of my 21st Century Digital classroom where students will create online writing portfolios with their own websites and then interact in discussion threads created by their peers' hopefully insightful writing that they'll share from their sites on this one page. All students from all three campuses will interact with another in this one place. At least all of this is the vision. We'll see what the reality is in a couple months.
Recent Posts
"I Can Do it Myself"
Back to Fitness Week 4 Check In
The Story of the Bloody Nose
Why the Mommy Wars will Never End
Have you gotten my book, Moms, Monsters, Media & Margaritas, yet? It examines how our 21st century digital world shapes our perceptions and expectations of our capabilities as mothers, wives, employers, and women. It will leave you with a humorous and inspirational look at the individual journey of motherhood that takes each of us from the girl we were to the woman we become. The book is also now available on the Amazon kindle for $3.99 and the Barnes and Noble Nook for $4.99. With the purchase of print and ebook books 20% of sales goes towards a children's charity for the The PACI Fund Project.
Wow I'm dizzy just thinking about your schedule and perhaps feeling a bit under accomplished, lol. It sounds like you are exactly where you want to be though and I'm happy for you. Good luck!
ReplyDelete