teaching 8:23 pm
No time. Running. Barely keeping up, but still afloat. Things aren’t as bad as I expected them to be, but I still have to work pretty hard to stay ahead of the game. Assigning seats tomorrow and actually teaching math. Every day it’s a whole new world.
Oh, and apparently half the district, plus a lady from Texas Teachers, is going to observe me this year. I can’t wait.
teaching 7:34 pm
How’s this for a switch: I don’t feel like updating today. But I’m gonna anyway.
You’re welcome.
Today was a monumental day. I stopped working on the physical set-up of my room and really focused on what I’m going to do on Monday. I started a lesson plan (didn’t finish it, but at least I got started), got a letter to the parents written (although my mentor has suggested a few changes), created and posted the bell schedule my classroom will follow (after which I was informed that my mentor could’ve given me one), and made copies of a first-day activity for all of my students.
I have tentative rosters for Monday, but nothing permanent will be released until later. I have doubts it’s actually happen, to be honest. I have three classes, right? In one class I had 34 students yesterday, 28 students this morning, and 31 students this afternoon. In another class, I’ve had 17, 18, and 16 respectively. The third has had 28, 21, and 29 respectively. I’m just going with the flow, though. I figure I’ll have about 30 students in each class, 90 total, and refuse to sweat the details.
I have a pretty sweet schedule, actually. My off periods are 7th and 8th, which makes for a short-feeling work day. I don’t have students in the late afternoon when they’re hardest to control, nor do I have after school duty (shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone, because teachers with no 8th period are supposed to have after school duty every day!) On the other hand, by having a 1st period class, I am an advisory teacher, and my first period is my advisory class. To those old fogies like me out there, you would understand “advisory” as “homeroom”. The reason we’re called one instead of the other is that we have detention duty. If a student gets into enough trouble, another teacher can refer him/her for detention (it’s through a complicated conduct card system that I’m still trying to figure out). The referral is sent to me, I assign the detention and make contact with the parents to let them know, and then have to follow up to make sure the kid showed up. If they didn’t, I also have the responsibility of referring that kid to an AP for in school suspension. In addition to discipline issues, any paperwork given out by the school, regardless of what period the students received it, is returned to the advisory teacher. Same goes for fund raiser money. I have mucho paperwork and documentation I have to keep up with. Recordkeeping, baby!
I guess, by being an advisory teacher, I’ll get to know who does what in my school really, really quickly. So, there’s a silver lining to think about. And, considering I have the last fourth of my day generally free of students, I guess the tradeoff isn’t too bad.
This week has been a flurry of meetings. Monday…what DID we do Monday? I know one thing I didn’t. I didn’t get to meet my mentor. I was sad about that and just a little frustrated. Now that she’s back, I’m okay, but I don’t like it when things don’t go right. Monday, I think we went through the district employee handbook, the school employee handbook, the student code of conduct, the district student handbook, and the school student handbook. I find it very frustrating that my district has handbooks at both the district level AND the school level. SO inefficient! Anyway, we also got our duty rosters, we talked a little about first day procedures, and generally dealt with paperwork all day.
Tuesday was the district’s back to school bash. Our session was in the morning, and we got to hear Ron Clark speak and watch him climb the furniture, dance, and generally jump around like a kid with real ADD issues. He was so funny and genuinely entertaining, and he actually had some useful things to say about teaching. The afternoon meeting was at a different school, and the guy that spoke had absolutely nothing new or useful to say. His speech had huge holes in it, his PowerPoint presentation looked like something I put together in junior college, and the only useful information he spouted has already been said by people who could say it better. The district definitely wasted money on that one.
Wednesday we were back on our home campuses, and we had more paperwork to go through. This time it was about bilingual learners, special ed students, and the on-line attendance and gradebook program that the district is using this year. In the afternoon, we were able to get into our rooms to work, which was SO nice.
Today, we had curriculum meetings all over the district, and then departmental meetings after lunch. My department kept it short and sweet and I was able to spend a good 3 hours in my room again. And this time, the Hubby got to come up to see it! Yay! I had been told that wireless printers were not going to work on the school’s network (and if I had given it a moment’s clear thought, I would have realized that on my own), so the hubby went to the store to pick up a long enough cable with a USB connection. He unboxed everything and set the printer up as much as he could without being able to actually install it. I’ll look into putting in a work order to have it installed by our IT department tomorrow.
Tomorrow is a work day. We’re supposed to be able to spend the day getting our rooms ready and getting our first day or two lesson plans ready. So far, I’ve been told about one meeting for my grade level, but hopefully it’ll be the only interruption.
Heh. It’s 8:30 at night and UPS just delivered my latest order. Who knew they delivered that late? I needed a way to store bulletin board border, so I found some storage boxes just for that purpose. I also ordered a welcome poster for the outside of my door and some cut-out stars for bulletin board accents. I want to have some seasonal decorations, but I also don’t want to go overboard and lose focus on the fact that I need to teach, not redecorate every month. The stars will get me started, though. I will probably go ahead and order some major holiday season decorations, but not much else. I also ought to get some more die-cut letters, but again, I can do it later. With the stars, I’m pretty well set for the next month or two. I’m going to need to find a storage solution for all this bulletin board stuff. Hmmm..Maybe later.
teaching 9:32 pm
What an incredible week. So much information, so little time!
I started off on Monday with information overload and it still has not stopped. Every day I wake up, and I’m innundated with yet more information to process on how the district works, how my school works, the policies, the procedures, the rules I have to follow, the paperwork I have to keep up with. And in the midst of it all, I have to figure out how to set up a classroom for the first time, and somehow get a semblance of lesson plans done for week one even though I have no information to work from.
And those were the high points.
On Wednesday, all of us first year teachers had to stay after orientation to meet out mentors and attend the training session on the mentorship program. Fine, good. I was looking forward to it. Except my mentor didn’t show up. Turns out, she’s out of town, on vacation, and won’t be back until this coming Monday. Then, on Thursday when we were at our home campuses, I find out from another math teacher on my team that my mentor doesn’t even teach the same prep as I do. She teaches the pre-AP students, who learn pre-Algebra. I teach the “regular” kids, who learn the standard 7th grade curriculum. So, her teaching resources will be really useless to me.
I was mad at first. Hurt, really. Why does everyone else get a responsible mentor and I get an absentee who can’t even help me? I had a chat with a good friend and he set me straight. God has me where I’m supposed to be. And even if my mentor can’t help me with teaching stuff, she can help me with classroom management techniques, and she can show me how to use the gradebook and attendance program on the computer. The other two teachers on my team will be the resource I go to for help with lessons. And that’s okay. It’s okay to go to more than one person to get what I need. Heck, the science teacher next door to me helps me, as well as her mentor, another science teacher, who is across the hall.
So far, the teachers I’ve talked to have been very supportive and helpful. That makes me hopeful that I will get through this school year with the desire to teach still intact.
Next week is going to be super busy. Inservice begins for the whole district, and the schedule shows us in campus and curricular meetings all week except for Friday. Thankfully, the hours are from 8am to 3:30pm. The Kiddo needs to be picked up from band practice at 4:30, so I can safely stay on campus for half an hour without needing to be in a meeting. That’s time in my room that I need so that I can finish getting it set up. On Friday, it looks like we’re working in our rooms all day, so I’ll have that time as well.
I have to say that this week has been very hard on my body. The walking and standing are killing my knees because they’re just not used to it. To walk from my classroom to the office and back 3-4 times is about a mile. It’s a big school. On the other hand, the walking will eventually do me some good and I’ll shed a few pounds, making the walking even easier. For now, though, my left knee really hates me, and since I’ve been walking funny on that leg, the calf muscle feels like I’ve pulled it. I don’t walk at the moment, I lurch.
This week has also been eye-opening in how much I still needed for my classroom to function. Except for furniture, my room was completely empty. It wasn’t used last year, so there’s nothing left behind except for dust. I’m glad for the furniture (especially the storage!), but there’s a bit more that I need in order to teach in that room. Office supplies are forthcoming – I’ve already put in a supply request for them. There are things that I want and/or need that the school won’t supply, though. They don’t provide organizers, for example. I’ll receive a classroom set of rulers, but nothing to store them in. They’ll give me pens and pencils, paper clips and staples, but nothing to contain them. I can print to my department printer, but when school is in session, I can’t send a student to pick up my printing, nor can I have another teacher watch my class while I go pick it up. I can only go on my conference period or during lunch. What if I need a handout for my class right now? So, I needed a printer for my room. And I have to remember to find some time next week to put in a request for IT to come and install it. So, yeah. There’s a lot I needed to get.
To say I’m completely exhausted would be making light of the situation. Thursday, after a half day in my room, I made a trip to Walmart for desk organizers, bottled water, and things to hang posters with that wouldn’t put holes in the wall. Friday I spent all day in my room moving furniture (with Dad’s help!), hanging posters, papering over the exterior windows (didn’t help much), and covering my bulletin boards. After I was done there, I headed to Office Depot for the printer plus extra ink, hanging files, colored paper, bulletin board letters and borders, and something to provide me with music in my room. That stuff is sitting on the kitchen table waiting for the next time I go up to school. Today, I bought better shoes, visited Catherine’s for more work clothes, and picked up a ton of cat litter from PetCo. Tomorrow, it’s back to Walmart, but for groceries this time, and laundry.
I have moments of clarity when I wonder if it will be this way all the time. All the hecticness and last minute timing. The scope and sequence for my subject and grade were still being written last week. The class schedules and duty rosters of the teachers are not finalized. The a/c in my room hasn’t been working well and no one is looking into it. We’re in meetings all week next week, but we all have lesson plans to put together. If it is like this all the time, will I get used to it? I don’t know. All I know right now is that I’m tired and I can’t go to bed because the Kiddo is at a birthday party and forgot to take his key, so I have to stay up and make sure he can get into the house when he gets home.
Thank goodness I’m not a horse, or they’d have shot me already.
Oh, here’s a picture of the room in progress:
This is taken from the far, front corner of the room, looking towards the door, my desk, and the built-ins.
Here, I was standing near the filing cabinets, facing the corner where the door is. The table on the far wall used to be where I’m standing, and the desk was facing the door. Also, the student desks were all facing the opposite direction.
This is looking towards where I was standing in the previous picture. I had to buy a lamp for my desk, but I forgot to get lightbulbs! It’s nice to see stuff on the walls. Makes the classroom much cozier.
Finally, I’m standing near the door here, facing the far wall. You can’t even tell that I have the large window covered with yellow paper, except for the yellow reflection my phone caught on the ceiling. I think I’m going to have to put some curtains up, but I’ll have to use a tension/spring-loaded rod, and I’m not sure they make them long enough. Also, I’ll have to wait until they’ve gotten around to tinting the windows. I have a uneasy feeling that once the glass is tinted, the principal will tell us we can’t cover the windows with anything else.
I plan to take my digital camera next week and take more pictures once the classroom is closer to complete. Right now, I’m only about halfway there.
daily life 6:00 pm
Tomorrow’s the day. I went to bed last night (late) thinking about all the things I wanted to get done today. Turns out, it wasn’t as much as I thought it was. I had to get laundry done. It’s done except for putting some of it away. I had to mend/replace a hook on two bras. Twenty minutes and done. I’d been putting it off for three months, so they ended up needing a wash because they’d started to collect dust while sitting on my dresser. I had to iron the clothes I planned on wearing tomorrow. That was a pain, but it’s done. I even managed to squeeze in a trip to WalMart. And, since Mom didn’t cook yesterday as I thought she would, she’s cooking today, so I get the day off of KP as well.
After I got my hair cut on Friday, I’ve been working with it to figure out how to style it. I still basically have the same hair cut, but it’s several inches shorter than I usually get it, making the styling of it completely different. Go figure. I thought, by cutting it shorter, I would have to style it less. While I don’t have to go to extremes to style my hair, I do have to do something with it in the area of blow drying and using a round brush. And, I’ve discovered that since I sleep on my left side, my hair on that side has a tendency to want to curl up and forward (not attractive), so styling products are required. I discovered this yesterday when I blow dried my hair with a round brush, achieving a look that I was quite satisfied with, only to look in the mirror two hours later to see the left side beginning to curl up and forward again. A bit of styling foam and a spritz of hairspray to set things today did the trick.
Please only look at the hair. Ignore the fact that I am wearing no makeup, my hair was done nearly 12 hours ago, and I am wearing the world’s ugliest shirt. Focus, people. And, now that I’m looking, you can’t see much of the hair. It’ll just have to do, though. 
I’m planning on getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. I timed my drive yesterday, and with no traffic, it takes about 30 minutes. I’ll add another 10 for traffic, but I’m not worried. I think I’ll be leaving between 6:15 and 6:30, just to be safe…which actually means I need to be up at 5, not 5:30. Damn. Well, anyway, if I am with it enough to remember, and I have time, I will try to take a pic of me all gussied up. Should be interesting. Or horrifying. Whichever.
Mmmmm. I can smell dinner. Mom is cooking a turkey ham with sliced yams, and made some sort of sauce for it all with applesauce, raising, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar. The smell is just heavenly!
Okay, I have two hours before I (technically) need to be in bed. I’d better go put the rest of that laundry away.
daily life 8:13 pm
I start working the day after tomorrow’s tomorrow. It has not sunk in completely yet. I will be a basket case on Sunday because that will be the day my brain will choose to acknowledge what is going on. Stupid brain.
Well, today ended week one of band camp for the Kiddo. It was a half-day, which they richly deserved. All those kids are doing so well, and they’re nice kids on top of that. Oh sure, some of them are stinkers, but most of them are genuinely good kids. I will enjoy watching them perform once school starts.
I have been so tired today! Of course, not getting more than 6 hours of sleep on any given night for several days in a row will do that to you. I could have dropped the kids off at band this morning and come back home to take a nap, but I really want to go to sleep on time tonight. I also want to go to sleep on time tomorrow (on time, meaning 10pm), so that I can go to bed an hour earlier on Sunday night. Monday is going to be a very early morning (read: 5am), and with all my nerves and anticipation, I’m going to need the rest or I’m going to get sick.
So, all day I’d start on something like reading a book or watching tv or playing Bejeweled, and I’d get about 20 minutes into it and start to fall asleep or my legs would get restless. I finally got sick of it around 4 and tried to lay down just to rest, but I kept falling asleep (shoulda predicted this one), so I got back up after about 30 minutes. It was a very unsatisfactory activity.
I was running through all the stuff I’ve picked up for my classroom, trying to get a grip on how much space I’m going to need to get it all up there. Answer: a small semi-truck. There’s no way in hell I’m going to fit all this stuff into my little bitty Yaris! Even if I’m the only one in the car, it wouldn’t all fit. And, by the time I actually can move things into my room, I’ll have even more stuff!
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Later:
Dinner is finally done and the kitchen is cleaned back up. I got to watch the most current two episodes of Eureka on the Sci Fi Channel. It’s a quirky little show, but I’m really beginning to like it. I like Warehouse 13 as well, but I’m too tired to stay up and watch it. Maybe I’ll be able to catch up on Tuesday, but somehow I doubt it.
I have three Netflix movies I should watch, but again, I’m too tired to even think about it. Maybe I’ll just laze around the house tomorrow and watch a couple of them then. Mom’s doing dinner, so I should be able to get away with at least one movie. We’ll see.
Well, I think I’m going to give Facebook one last check and then mosey on to bed. This cowgirl’s about done in.
daily life 8:09 am
I think I’m finally settling into this new, early routine. Monday and Tuesday were terrible because I really slept like crap the nights before. I even took Melatonin Sunday night to help me sleep, but it didn’t seem to help at all. I’ve been really hot at night lately, even sweating through my nightgown once. Yuk! Last night, not only was I tired, but I hadn’t spent the previous two hours in bed watching a movie, AND I took a quick shower to wash off all the day’s sweat and grime. Although I still didn’t get a full eight hours, the five or so hours I did get were solid and relatively uninterrupted. Hopefully, tonight will be even better and by the time I have to get up early for my own stuff, I’ll be over this whole schedule transition.
And I thought sleeping pills would be all I needed. *snort* I underestimate my body’s ability to keep me awake.
Today is the third day of summer band for the Kiddo. I think it was the hardest morning, by far, for him to wake up. Learning how to march isn’t difficult, per se, but being out in 90+ degree heat for four hours is. Today’s highs are close to 100 again, and we have a heat advisory. I’m hoping that their outside practice will be over by the time the temps get there. He has section rehearsal this afternoon, so he’ll finally get to meet the rest of his section. So far, he’s only met his section leaders. I can’t imagine that there are many more players to meet, to be honest. From what I hear, there aren’t any seniors in his section, and there’s only four freshmen. How many more baritones does a band this size need? Next year, there won’t be any freshman baritones because the only kid that played last year that was a year behind the Kiddo quit. I never experienced that in my high school band, but it was better supported, better funded, and better led. And really, of the three, it was the money that made the most difference.
I finally made an appointment to have my hair cut. It’s been since, oh I don’t know, April (?). I think. I went to a new salon, so the stylist had never cut my hair before. My appointment is with the same lady, but since it’s been so long, it might as well be the first time I’ve gone in. I’m hoping that, by using the same stylist, I’ll start to get a better haircut, but if I don’t go in often enough, no one I go to will ever be able to get used to my hair. I liked how it was cut last time, but it was not short enough. And really, this time I’m not even sure I want the same style. I’m kinda tired of it in a wedge that’s stacked & layered in the back. Is it strange that I think I want to go even shorter? I’m hesitant to do so because I don’t want my hair to look like my mother’s. She has a feminine version of a man’s crew cut. I don’t think I can handle hair that short.
Anyway, I need a new hairdo, and I’m hoping I’ll get one tomorrow.
Okay, I need to go find some caffeine. I have a headache and feel like I need a nap.
daily life 7:03 pm
I am annoyed. I am annoyed with the world. I’m tired of waiting for things to happen. I’m tired of waiting for my job to start. I’m tired of waiting for the Kiddo’s band practice to start. And I am annoyed with it all.
I am so annoyed, in fact, that I can’t seem to focus on anything. I’ll watch tv for 20 minutes before I just can’t bear to sit there for another minute and I go wandering through the house. I have books I could read, but I can’t even entertain the thought of picking them up. I have cross stitching I could do, but if I’m not willing to read or watch tv, I’m certainly not willing to deal with needle and thread and counting holes. I have sewing I need to do, and I keep looking at the pile and walking away from it.
I am annoyed with myself for not getting done what I know I need to be doing.
I am annoyed that I have gone on for this many words about how I am annoyed. What I bore I have become.
I have found one thing that holds my attention for more than five seconds: Bejeweled 2. I will play the endless version for an hour or more, and when I’m done I need a nap. That game seriously makes me sleepy!
Oh, and I’ve been checking Facebook obsessively, playing Mafia Wars and all the other “Wars” games Zynga has sucked me into. I should be ashamed of myself, but I just can’t bring myself to get that worked up over it.
Thursday was Mom’s birthday. I had reminded Dad on Monday, and he quickly kicked it into high gear and ordered a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to her office. He also started making plans to take her out to dinner. My father has never bought my mother flowers. EVER. To say she was shocked when they arrived Thursday afternoon is a vast understatement. I went to Walmart and bought her the most decadent-looking chocolate cake I could find. She was very pleased with all of it. Flowers, dinner out, and a chocolate cake. I need to remember to remind my dad more often when important dates are coming up. He doesn’t even try to remember them and my mom, for whatever reason, refuses to try to remind him. Personally, I don’t play that little mind game with the Hubby. I know he doesn’t remember, so I remind him. Screw being romantic about it! The point is that I want him to get me something, so why play coy?
On my trip to Walmart for birthday cake on Thursday, I paused at the school supply area. It’s so pristine right now because it just got put out and the rabid soccer moms haven’t pawed through it all yet. I had picked up some big boxes of pencils a few days before, and they’d been a really good price, so I wanted to get more. One for each grading period, in fact. While there, I noticed their top-end electric pencil sharpener was nicely priced (meaning that, even though it’s Walmart’s top of the line electric sharpener, it’s still a piece of sh*t and will break within the first month of school), so I picked one up. I really should be saving my money for a high-end industrial sharpener from an office supply outlet. If I get six week’s use out of this one, I’ll consider it money well spent and will replace it with a better one later in the year.
And then I turned the corner into the aisle o’ folders. Normally, when I’m shopping for folders for the Kiddo, every box has twenty different styles and colors in it because people pick stuff up and don’t put it back where they got it from. Not so this time. Since it’s only been a few days since the store has put out the back-to-school stuff, but the schools don’t have their school supply lists available yet, the folders were all still organized by type, style, and color. It was HEAVEN, I tell you! I needed three different colors of folders for my classroom: Orange, blue, and purple. I needed pocket portfolios, not folders with brads. And I needed fifty of each. Not only was I able to get them, but I didn’t have to hunt them down, they are all identical, and they were twenty cents cheaper than normal. For a little over twenty dollars, I was able to purchase all 150 folders, fifty in each color. I am satisfied.
Monday, the Kiddo starts summer band practice. Our schedules will switch from summer hours to school hours, which means I’ll be getting up around 6am. Right now, I get up around 9am, so this is not gonna be pretty. I’ll handle it though. I’m not even going to bother trying to shift my sleep schedule because I’m never successful at it and it turns out that I don’t need to. I just need to take sleeping pills the night before I have to wake up early, have a crappy night of sleep regardless of the sleeping pills, get up at the new early time, and then go to sleep early that night. It all works out! By the time I have to get up early for my own stuff, I’ll already be used to it. Win-win.
Bejewled calleth and I must answereth.
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