We are well past the one month point and there are several things that have occurred to me.
My AP students are fun. They make teaching fun. It is fun to be in the classroom. With that said, I have to put in a tremendous amount of work. I had many of these students in freshman Honors and I know how many of them write which worries me. The level is not quite there yet and there are some that still don;t understand basic literary terms. The part where I have to work hard is when I have to read every paper and pinpoint where they are going wrong; in some case in the wrong direction. The fact that I like them makes it easier for me to be honest with them. Frankly, I don't think they would respect me much if I wasn't.
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I really felt that my 7th period freshmen from last year may have been the one class that would drive me completely insane.
I present to you 6th period freshman English 2013/14.
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Our district came up with the "brilliant" idea to start our school day at 7:40am (we used to start at 7:55). Tardies are up and there is a general sleepiness with my first period AP class. I haven't figured out if they are tired or they are just taking a long time to process what I'm saying.
This time change has been a pain with the morning routines of preparing for school. It takes me about 25 minutes to get from door to door. The problem is that my daycare provider opens at 7am. Others are miffed because of this very issue.
By the way, our late start Mondays for department meetings starts at 7:30. No bueno.
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Did I mention I am the CSF adviser on my campus? Yeah, I do that too. I have a great group of officers who are self starters. I will admit, I have trouble keeping up with them and the fact that the club is new to me, I find myself digging through the previous advisers copious binder from the year before trying to get clues. It's like Where's Waldo but harder.
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I chose to step down as senior class adviser this year to take on CSF. I couldn't do another year of fundraising, building floats for homecoming, and getting members to show up to meetings.
I decided to take a lesser role by being the freshman class assistant adviser where we are fundraising, building floats for homecoming and trying to get members to show up. :-/
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I have a student teacher this year that I am mentoring and that in itself adds approximately a half hour of work onto my already busy schedule. I really don;t mind it though as my joy to teach doesn't just extend to teenagers. More to come on this.
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I have yet to kill my mid afternoon soda addiction (the soda I have after lunch during 5th or 6th period). I'm still trying to figure out if it is my body truly craving a boost or it is an automatic response like a sound or something. "Mr. Weber, can I go to the bathroom?" "No" "Hum, I'm thirsty."
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While many frown on teaching in a portable, I have found it to be the best place to teach. It's actually a pretty big room, the walls are like a giant painted cork board, and the ability to completely control my air is priceless. 67 degrees? Thank you sir.
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