It’s hard to believe there have been three weeks of teaching already! It both feels like we just started and that we have been back for months. On the first day of school I saw a colleague in the hall and we both commented that it feels so great to be back in the classroom. As my students would say, teaching is my jam. It felt great to be back! The two words that come to mind about the first three weeks are: fun and tiring.
This year I am teaching a course I haven’t taught in 5 years. In that time, there was a significant revision of the scope and sequence. Teaching a new course is absolutely a combination of fun and tiring. It is great to be back with sophomores and it’s fun to look at lesson plans and assessments with a fresh perspective. I’m not as efficient at the grading or lesson planning as I learn the layout of the new curriculum. It has taken me much longer to have my lessons ready to go than it did last year. I also find myself having many more questions for the teachers on my team. Thankfully they are wonderful and very willing to help–even when I texted on the weekend to make sure I had the right answers on a reading quiz!
Last week I led our sophomore retreat, which too was fun and tiring. It is outside for most of the day. The week leading up to the retreat it said rain and possibly thunderstorms. We have never had to create such specific back up plans in case of rain. People joke that in Seattle it rains all the time, but in the 12 years I’ve been at the school we have never had rain on this retreat! It took a lot of extra planning, more coordinating with other adults, and lots of flexibility from people all around the school. The day of the retreat, my boss and I talked at 6:00 am to make the call–we had the retreat outside because the forecast kept pushing the rain back later in the afternoon. The retreat was one of the best we’ve had and the weather was great!! We even got hot chocolate for the kids in the morning which was a big hit! The whole day, and days leading up to it, were so fun, and tiring!
It is definitely nice to feel like I’m getting into more of a grove. And falling asleep at 8:30 pm on Friday night felt great too! Ahhhhh, back to teacher life!