Getting through the day and not crapping myself = priceless

Aug 12, 2008 17:56

Today I had a nice reprieve from camp to attend the first day of orientation for my new school. I was very excited and also scared to death; specifically scared that I wouldn't crap myself. You see, apart from a cajun burger on Friday and bowl of cheerios on Saturday, I can't attribute to what evil has befallen upon my stomach and made my colon Mt. Vesuvius. I actually went home early from camp yesterday because I was crapping myself silly. I went home, took some Immodium and relaxed. After awhile, my stomach calmed down, although I felt a good deal of stomach pain throughout the day.

I didn't take anything this morning, hoping that things would be ok. I ate a corn muffin and about 15 minutes after, thankfully right when we went on our first break of the day, I went running through the halls looking for a bathroom. I barely made it to a woman's bathroom that was under construction and luckily nobody was around. If they were, they would have heard the extreme flatulence and anal violence that ensued and probably forgiven me anyways. After that moment, I took some more Immodium and made it through the day - although I still feel bloated and experiencing stomach pain. Argh.

Regardless, today was a really good day. I like the new school a lot and I am starting to really see the benefits of joining a public school. The biggest one that I saw is; while you may or may not like your administration or principal, at a public school they have to have public speaking ability, a certain level of competence and have the legitimate experience and degrees to hold that position. My last vice principal failed at all of these and I was thinking about my orientations with him and how embarrassingly unprepared I was during and well after the session was over.

The new school has 2 orientations that are all day, plus 3 days of optional software and systems training. There is a 6 month mentoring program, mentor teachers and clear cut faculty objectives, academic policies and supervisory procedures. My supervisor is organized, blunt and extremely professional. I like the guy a lot so far. Everyone in my orientation today - new teachers and faculty present alike, were consumate professionals. Unlike my last job where I started with 13 teachers and only 3 of us had prior teaching experience, the nearly twenty new faculty members had a wealth of experience, specific reasons for why they were there, and an overall passion to teach. The administrators and supervisors who were assembled talked about education in practical terms and for the first time, I listened to supervisors who meant it - Kids are first, academics are first, communication and being on the same page is key.

I marveled at the cell phone policy, the procedures of how to deal with over-involved parents, how the back to school night is the first week of school so that you can't get shit from parents - the administration here really takes care of their teachers. I have heard nothing bad about this place since being hired and when I do run into people, I get this "That is a stellar school". The fucking place even has a planetarium in it that they are upgrading so that they can interface movies from IMAX and the Hayden Planetarium. A new industrial arts teacher behind me remarked "Man, my high school sucked". No shit.  My old school had better art facilities and offices hands down; but what they didn't have was foresight into how to grow and foster the arts at the school. The arts are a huge priority at my new job, there is a first class darkroom, and although the studios are tight - more than enough equipment and encouragement from the administration to acquire any tech you need.

I remarked to my supervisor that I used scanners a lot as a visual arts teacher to incorporate traditional art, textures, found objects and take them into the digital world. My supervisor was like - "What do you need, ballpark and how much do they cost". Apparently they budget for the next school year in November and if you can sell it, you can get what you need. So, I think I talked myself into getting two full scale scanners and nice printers to print photos - and I haven't even worked a day in the place yet.

While I am super stoked about how things shook down, there are definitely levels of concern and caution. The first being that this is a huge new school with 140 faculty members and 1357 students. That is double the faculty I served with previously, and tripple the student body which is co-ed at this school. A lot of adjustments. A lot more responsibility, paperwork, hierarchy and organization is going to happen. I am going to have to really have solid lesson plans to fill my hour block classes as opposed to teaching rotating blocks with different times. As an art teacher - that shouldn't be a big deal. The big thing is teaching AP Art History, grading, pacing and getting a good groove with having FAR more time on projects with my students. Example, at my last school I taught term courses, usually 10 weeks long and I would do on average 4-6 major projects. At my new school I teach semester and full year courses, the year divides into 4 quarters and the project load is half of what I did previously. More time and more quality is the idea; but I am so trained on shotgunning things at my students that this is going to be a big switch for me.

I liked the people I met in my orientation, like the new psych teacher who is a really sarcastic chick with 10 years teaching experience. I just got this vibe as she strolled into the room with this silver business suit with a stud in her nose - that's probably someone who's your speed. And I think I called that one pretty good so far. Us artsy fartsy people gots to stick together.

I so don't want to go to camp again for the rest of the week. Boo. Last week, though. Yay.
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