Well, the first week of school has come and gone. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
The kiddo started back the same day I did, which complicated things, but at least we got the whole “first day” thing over with. So far, he likes his teachers. He’s in the top band this year, symphonic, which is an accomplishment considering he just started playing last year. He also joined his school’s jazz band, which I think is really cool. The music for both bands caught him off-guard, though, and he actually spent a sleepless night this week worrying about it. Once he realized that all he needed was a few hours of practice, he was ecstatic. His school switched to modified block scheduling this year, and he’s having a hard time getting it figured out. He was really getting frustrated with remembering what to bring home for homework and what could stay in his locker. My suggestion was to just bring everything home everyday, but he has trouble fitting everything into his backpack. And, since he takes the bus home, he doesn’t have much time to play backpack-Tetris with his binders everyday. So, for now, I’m going to be picking him up from school in the afternoons. I won’t be at school quite as early as I’m used to, but that will just mean that I am going to have to do more of my homework at home this semester. I was going to have to pick him up every Wednesday afternoon anyway, because he has weekly section rehearsals this year. I gotta say, after all of my years in band back when I was in school, it’s very strange to be on the parent side of that equation. Very.
Anyway, my week was pretty good, as well. I have five classes again, but the good thing is that they’re my last five classes. I have one that’s on-line, Web Development, and I’ve already finished one assignment for it. It’s all pretty much HTML centered, and I already know piddly bits of it, so I’m a little ahead. It’s cool to have the bits of what I do know fleshed out a little better. After looking of the syllabus, I came to the conclusion that the teacher actually has reasonable expectations in the course assignments. The progression of work is logical and makes sense to the subject, and the assignments are reasonable (in number, at least) and not overwhelming (so far). There’s one test, the final, but I don’t anticipate any trouble there, either. Most of our grade comes from the projects/assignments we will be finishing.
I also have two math classes this semester. Algebra Through Technology is supposed to be an investigation of College Algebra with technology thrown in for kicks. The teacher is new to the class (he’s never taught it before), and seems very disorganized and unprepared. Of course, that was just the first week, and he’ll probably come in next week ready to kick ass and take names, so I really shouldn’t get ahead of myself here. I don’t anticipate many problems with this class, since I did very well in College Algebra, and my algebra skills, in general, are pretty solid. The other math class is Linear Algebra. This class could go either way. I don’t think I’m going to have any problems, but it’s too early to make predictions. It’s a core math class, so it’s not designed for non-math students. It’s designed for people who should know what they’re doing in math, which I sometimes do and sometimes don’t. 
As with any new math, I know that it’s all about practice, practice, practice. I’ll get through it, even if I have to form a study group to do it.
My last two classes are education classes. As I’ve mentioned, these classes are always chock-full of useless busy work, designed to make it look like the School of Education is rigorously training its teacher candidates, when in reality, none of the candidates find the assignments useful or relevant, nor do the candidates benefit from them. The one class, School & Community, is much like this. The teacher is nice enough (they usually are), and she’s been teaching for over a decade, so she’ll be a good person to go to if I have any trouble once I start substituting, but the content of the class will be just more busy work. At this point, I don’t resent it. Busy work is fine, if it means I’ll graduate in December! The other class, though, is a different story altogether. The name of the class is “Creating Positive Learning Environments for Grades 4-8 and 8-12,” but it’s been shortened to “Classroom Management”. From what I can tell it will be, by far, the most useful class I will take to prepare me to be a teacher. The work involved in this class is tremendous. I will be writing a 30-40 page paper, for starters. But the information I will be given, and the things I will be learning are priceless to starting my career in teaching. As much as I want to whine about the workload in this class, I just can’t. The information is just that needed.
So, in a rather large nutshell, that’s my semester. I will be busy, I already know it, but I will get through it!
In other news, I’ve ordered my class ring! Squee! Having a college ring is something I decided I really wanted to do last semester. I would get exactly what I wanted, keeping in mind my personal needs when it comes to jewelry worn on my hands. Do you realize how EXPENSIVE those things are?!? Holee COW! Thankfully, I’d been putting away a little money here and there and I was able to make it happen. I just happened to get to school early on Wednesday, which was lucky because the ring rep. was at the college that day. And, since I ordered it during their time at the school, I got a pretty good promotional discount. In 6-8 weeks, it should be here. I can hardly wait!
Today, the hubby and I took a drive around the town we live in. I went to the school district’s website and found a map of the district boundary, and we wanted to take a look at how far away we could move (once I have a job and we have money to buy a house), but still be in the same district. Turns out, we can move pretty far from where we’re living now, which is so very nice. Not that I don’t love my parents because I do. And I’m still extremely grateful and humbled by how much they’ve helped us and encouraged me in going to school. They have totally been my support system and I have no complaints. But the truth is, I’m 34 years old. The hubby is pushing 40. I have a teenager. They’re semi-retired and are done raising kids. We need separate living spaces! Our hope is that we are able to buy about an acre of land and have a house put on it. We’ve been talking to a dealer (of houses) about the floorplan and manufacturer we are interested in, and provided Gustav doesn’t visit us, we’ll be taking a look at a model on Monday. Very exciting stuff, this!
So, I’m pretty much done for the weekend. Yesterday I finished up any homework that’s due next week, plus I got laundry out of the way. The kiddo is at my MIL’s until tomorrow afternoon, and the hubby is at a friend’s house, helping him work on his generator in preparation for the upcoming storms, should they target the Houston area. So, it’s just me tonight and for most of tomorrow. It’s a little surreal, actually.
