Class of 2011

Today, I was introduced to my school's contribution to the Class of 2011, and so far, I am unimpressed!  It's not a fair assessment because I didn't have any time to meet with my Honors class due to a class meeting, and another class got short shrift, too, due to the beginning of the year confab in the gym first thing this morning.  Still, they all came in chatty and seemingly fearless.  (I had several of them in summer school, so I have a headstart on them!)

This year's schedule is a bit more challenging than last year's.  We have to be at school a full 30 minutes plus before the day takes up for Success Period--which amounts to tutoring for kids who need extra help and actually manage to show up.  Then, I teach 41/2 classes before lunch, and another 1 1/2 before my "free" period, then one more before dismissal.  (Last year, the day was more broken up than that.)  Makes for a long day and a lot of talking!  Not to mention really sore feet...  At least this year, lunch is at a more reasonable hour:  11:00 instead of 10:15!

One thing that happens when a teacher stays in the same location for a long time is that we start getting the children of kids we once taught.  That hasn't happened to me in Monrovia YET, but I do have the younger sister of a kid that I had when I taught elementary school way back when.  She was just born then...and now she is in 8th grade!  I also have yet another offspring of some folks whose eldest I had 11 or 12 years ago.  Have had four of their boys, so far...and this one tells me that there is yet another behind him.  It always bothers me to see the parents of these kids because I know they are thinking, "Dang!  She looks old!" 

Nothing has been done in my classroom since we left last spring.  With the new administration, we have been encouraged to go through proper channels to get things accomplished, but the administration and the maintenance guys have been so beleaguered with "schtuff" that our needs get put on a list, down low, even though we are the ones dealing with the students.  After months of asking, I chucked the channels yesterday and struck out on my own.  I needed three more desks in my room, so I snagged a custodian who found some for me.  My LCD projector is STILL facing the wrong wall, so I introduced myself to the new IT guy in the hall and explained my problem.  It's not fixed yet, but at least he came into the room to see what needed to be done.  That's progress!  I bought my own hand soap and paper towels to put by the sink because there still is no soap or paper towel dispenser there.  And so it goes...

I have spent quite a bit of my own time developing a challenging curriculum for my classes that will meet the State Standards for 8th grade language arts and will (hopefully) improve ISTEP scores.  I have made myself a list of things I need to improve upon and am working toward that.  Who knows?  By the time I am ready to retire, I might be a half-decent teacher!

I am loafing tonight.  Have some housework to do, but I'm not overdoing that.  New school hours means an earlier bedtime.  Have to get used to that!