The Dawning of a New School Year...
Every year, it's the same: Day before school year starts, and I start worrying about the first day of school. It's a pretty sleepless night the night before, I get in there, close the door, and everything snaps right into place. It's like after being away from school for a lengthy period of time, I forget what I do for a living, then freak out that I've forgotten how to be a teacher, and then I remember just in time and we're off on another adventurous school year.
This summer has proved so far to follow a different course. For one thing, last school year, although not exactly "rough", was a bit of a disappointment in trying to reach kids. I started out with 27, then for reasons unknown, kids started dropping out, moving away, going to a different school in the district, or in the case of one child being placed in another classroom. This created a bit of disharmony and apprehension in the room. At the end of the school year, I received exactly 1 gift from 1 student. Not that I look for gifts, but that's kind of like the parental community either being apathetic or just plain opposed to the same thing I've been doing otherwise successfully for 15 years.
So it took a summer to wipe the bad taste of the previous school year off.
Going back earlier on my own time, as we teachers are normally wont to do, the first thing I had to contend with was that I was to have 32 students. That's quite a big jump from 22 at the end of last year. To move desks, rearrange, and try to get the room to my liking took a lot, but at the end of the two days the wife, boy, and I spent copying and on the room, I was finally able to be "good" with it.
Then came last Wednesday, our first "official" day back as teachers. Late in the afternoon, I was paid a visit by our principal, who normally doesn't make it out to my particular wing near the playground for purely social reasons. Apparently, parents have been talking about me, about how I am a "hard" teacher, and their apprehensions about having their kid in my class. "So, just try to keep it as positive as you can when we start out," he said. This, of course, fills me with dread, and makes me doubt everything I've been doing. But wait, wasn't that part of the trouble last year?
Now I don't feel so great. I wished he hadn't have said anything at all.
Oh, by the way, my class did the best of the three third grade classes, on the State Testing last year. Uh, what?
And yet, Thursday, I go back in with the resolve to "keep it positive" and a nasty sore throat, shut the door to my classroom, and remind myself that my reward at the end of the day with be going to the Weezer concert.
Friday rolls around and here we have our class lists, which may or may not be final depending on who has moved and the final outcome of a decision upon a 3/4 combo. This means I can only put names on the nametags without numbers (a big problem if you're a teacher). I have no summaries of the kids from the previous year's teacher, which help in setting the talkers away from the other talkers. I can only go "boy, girl, boy..." and hope for the best. I feel my throat closing in.
After a sleepless Friday, Saturday reveals that I've either got at sinus infection or that I picked up a virus. Great.
Sunday has only proved to be a bit better, but it's still hanging on, whatever it is. I did finally manage to see Deathly Hallows, Pt 2 with Terri. I knew they couldn't include everything in 2 hours, I was happy with how it turned out.
So now I have the usually night before school year worries, a stuffy nose, and apprehension about how I'm going to be perceived tomorrow. Never have I felt such dispair before a school year has started. I can only hope that this all disappears once we get under way. At the very least, I'd like to feel like head is not on a tether from the congestion.
Here we go.
This summer has proved so far to follow a different course. For one thing, last school year, although not exactly "rough", was a bit of a disappointment in trying to reach kids. I started out with 27, then for reasons unknown, kids started dropping out, moving away, going to a different school in the district, or in the case of one child being placed in another classroom. This created a bit of disharmony and apprehension in the room. At the end of the school year, I received exactly 1 gift from 1 student. Not that I look for gifts, but that's kind of like the parental community either being apathetic or just plain opposed to the same thing I've been doing otherwise successfully for 15 years.
So it took a summer to wipe the bad taste of the previous school year off.
Going back earlier on my own time, as we teachers are normally wont to do, the first thing I had to contend with was that I was to have 32 students. That's quite a big jump from 22 at the end of last year. To move desks, rearrange, and try to get the room to my liking took a lot, but at the end of the two days the wife, boy, and I spent copying and on the room, I was finally able to be "good" with it.
Then came last Wednesday, our first "official" day back as teachers. Late in the afternoon, I was paid a visit by our principal, who normally doesn't make it out to my particular wing near the playground for purely social reasons. Apparently, parents have been talking about me, about how I am a "hard" teacher, and their apprehensions about having their kid in my class. "So, just try to keep it as positive as you can when we start out," he said. This, of course, fills me with dread, and makes me doubt everything I've been doing. But wait, wasn't that part of the trouble last year?
Now I don't feel so great. I wished he hadn't have said anything at all.
Oh, by the way, my class did the best of the three third grade classes, on the State Testing last year. Uh, what?
And yet, Thursday, I go back in with the resolve to "keep it positive" and a nasty sore throat, shut the door to my classroom, and remind myself that my reward at the end of the day with be going to the Weezer concert.
Friday rolls around and here we have our class lists, which may or may not be final depending on who has moved and the final outcome of a decision upon a 3/4 combo. This means I can only put names on the nametags without numbers (a big problem if you're a teacher). I have no summaries of the kids from the previous year's teacher, which help in setting the talkers away from the other talkers. I can only go "boy, girl, boy..." and hope for the best. I feel my throat closing in.
After a sleepless Friday, Saturday reveals that I've either got at sinus infection or that I picked up a virus. Great.
Sunday has only proved to be a bit better, but it's still hanging on, whatever it is. I did finally manage to see Deathly Hallows, Pt 2 with Terri. I knew they couldn't include everything in 2 hours, I was happy with how it turned out.
So now I have the usually night before school year worries, a stuffy nose, and apprehension about how I'm going to be perceived tomorrow. Never have I felt such dispair before a school year has started. I can only hope that this all disappears once we get under way. At the very least, I'd like to feel like head is not on a tether from the congestion.
Here we go.