Back to School

(teaching related post)
It's that time of the year again. After almost two months off, I go back to work on Monday. Because of our odd year round schedule, I come back to finish the school year which ends at the end of June (2 months). Then I have a four day, 4th of July weekend, and I start a new school year. How the hell I'll manage that is beyond me right now. Whacky! On Monday though, it's back to 142 students who would mostly rather be anywhere but in school. Back to waking up at or a little before 6am. Back to going to bed by 11pm. Back to working all day and trying to find the motivation to do ANYTHING once I get home. But there are good things too. Back to being an educator, making an influence in a positive way in my student's lives. Back to doing much more productive things and back to finishing my first full year of teaching.

I've only been teaching since January of 2005. I'm doing great, even on those days that I reflect and wonder what the heck my students are learning. I'm probabally more organized and together than I feel. The students seem to think I know everything. HAHA, that's freaking hilarious. Some days I don't even know what the heck I'm going to teach that day let alone the next. But hey, the students and administrators don't need to know that little detail, so keep that hush hush. Actually, as far as my tenth grade classes go, I have a good grasp on what I need to do my first month back. We are preparing to take yet another district benchmark test. The emphasis on this test is literary analysis. I have read through the enormous curriculum. Picked stuff I wanted to focus on. I have some tentative rough lessons written up and will do more this week. So, I feel good about that. As far as my eleventh grade classes go, I'm sort of at a loss. I wish there was some more guidance, but not too much, from the district to help me structure the class. I will start by doing the same as the tenth grade classes the first couple of weeks. In English classes, each year is the same, but the level just builds some each year. So, I'm not totally un-ready.

Along with teaching, I am in the state's new teacher induction program called BTSA. For two years I have an ung-dly amount of workshops, classes, reflections, observations, blah blah, to accomplish. Yesterday I met with the district coordinator for my mid-year review. I'm not as far behind as I feel, but I do have some stuff to wrap up by the end of June. Yay me. Frankly, the BTSA program has the potential to be great, but when you throw all this into the mix of being a first year teacher in an urban school in LAUSD, it's overwhelming. I think they should make this program for 2nd or 3rd year teachers. The only thing is that the statistics of teachers who quit before their 3rd year and the retention rates beyond that are low, so I think the state hopes this helps rather than hinders new teachers.

Anyway...many of you are newer readers and have not seen my teaching posts. I'm sure I'll start having more. You'll get to hear about flopped lesson plans, successes, and the way in which I work with or interact with my "kids". I'll try to forewarn if it's a school post for those of you who could really care less :) Aren't I accomodating.