Losing Momentum

I finally feel myself losing my momentum. After recovering from the lack of sleep the last few weeks of school I found myself REALLY motivated to do a lot of things. I was going to blog, and I was going to run, and I was going to have my curriculum planned before school next year and now... I'm finding myself falling short on a lot of things. This is something I suppose that I tend to do, one of the flaws of my personality if you will that I get really excited, over do it, and then don't know how to recoup and get down on myself in the process. Its always the same every time. I have to find my way back to schedules, routines, and remind  myself that come August 10th it will start all over again.

Professional Development Day Two

I have sat down to write this post multiple times now and failed each and every time. My brain is more fried than I expected and I'm happy to be in my home. Note to self: biggest adjustment to living at home this first month of school... NO down time what-so-ever.

But on to more important matters. Yesterday was a much more fluid day, setting our own times for meetings and deciding what those meetings entailed which was a benefit to me because it gave me a chance to wrap my brain around the amount of work that will need to be accomplished even before the start of the school year. I spent some time getting a key and a pass card -  even though my contract doesn't start until August which wowed me. I think that at some point the professionalism and the trust in my judgement as a professional will stop to shock me, however, I have not reached that point yet.

I started my day meeting with the woman whose class I am teaching next year and discussed with her what she has done in the past, and moreover was introduced to the resources at my disposal. The classroom is gorgeous with a beautiful view of the desert mountains, something I was going to miss about Tucson were the desert landscape views... now I have one to look out at from my own classroom. After meeting with her it was down time, technology meetings, lunch, and then ending the day with meeting with the 8th grade teachers. We discussed the students who will be staying, and I now feel like I already know these students. These teachers are so in-tune to their students, they have obviously taken the time to get to know their strengths and the weaknesses, and were so sad to see each and every one of them go. With only 20 students it is easy enough to discuss who we are getting in the 9th grade and how the social dynamics of that will work. And people say that small numbers don't matter...

This summer I have a lot of work to do, and what seems like not enough time to get it done and yet I'm absolutely thrilled by the challenges ahead. Woot!

Professional Development Day One

Its day one and my head is still spinning even hours after I left my new place of employment. Professional development today reminded me of what my professors in college said that education would be like, educators putting their heads together to make sense of a situation, and make decisions that are best for students. The honest feedback given to the administrator, the collaboration, and the total honesty from top down "I have to run this by admin but it sounds great to me" was refreshing (or the counter of… let me ask this question first… a nice way to say I don’t see things your way let’s talk about it). With only nine people in an entire “faculty” it creates such a manageable situation where all voices, opinions, and concerns can be heard and no one walks away upset with anyone else.

I'm thrilled, and exhausted all at the same time. The job will not be easy but I'm hoping it will be one of the best things I have done for myself in my professional experience. In general what I am going to be teaching is overwhelming, I will be asked to do more and be more involved than I am used to having to be, but the staff is great and works together in MANY aspects not because they are forced but because they want to work together. I seem to have found a job where everyone is truly gifted in their own areas of expertise. Andrew Carnegie once said that the key to effective leadership is having the courage to surround yourself with people smarter than yourself. This adage a hundred years later is so sound that I can’t help but take comfort in its existence in my little world today.

To Raise A Child

I'm hoping that this will be the first post of many to this blog. It was suggested to me, as I enter this new phase of my teaching career, that I chronicle the year. The triumphs and the disappointments, the stress free and stressful times, and everything in between. It will be like starting over in a lot of ways, and that has to be ok. It is bittersweet to say goodbye.