Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The First Month

A month to the day since I've last posted.

Grampy, I'm sorry. Forgive me. (You're probably the only one who's noticed.)

I'm sure it's obvious, but it's been crazy busy here since day 1, and I'm still not quite caught up on life yet. But I'll do my best to summarize what's been happening since I last wrote.

This year has brought some changes that have been both exciting and exhausting. I've moved into the role of "Lead Teacher", which sounds fancier than it actually is. It basically means that I'm doing much of the same thing I did last year, only this time I'm helping to develop another teacher in the process. My current teacher partner is a second year teacher who taught social studies last year. Needless to say, we have some work to do. While we are technically a team, there's a lot more responsibility on my end, and I spend a lot of time observing him in his classroom and live coaching.

The biggest change from last year was our decision to split kids instead of curriculum. Last year, my partner teacher (who moved up to 7th grade this year) taught half of the curriculum (focused more on algebra) and I taught the other half (focused more on geometry and ratios). We both taught all 100 kids, four different periods a day. This year, we've decided the best route is to split the kids instead of the curriculum, since every topic in math relates to each other in some way. This means that I only teach about 60 kids, but I teach almost twice the amount of lessons. Last year, I was planning 4 lessons a week - now, I'm up to 7. I have absolutely loved being able to focus on my 60 kids and get to know them really well, but the planning cycle is exhausting. My schedule is pretty crazy, too. To compensate for the increase in workload, we've been given more planning periods, but it also means every day looks different for me. It's been tough trying to keep up with when I teach, when I'm off, and when I have hall coverage periods, but it is definitely nice to know that I have more time to get work done a few days a week.

Our school leaders have also decided to do away with the typical "social studies" class and instead replace it with Global Literacy. While it's an exciting new addition to our curriculum, it also means we have to fit in "test prep" social studies skills somewhere, and that somewhere is every morning during our advisory/homeroom period. Which means on top of teaching math, leading a book club, and keeping up with the demands of our crazy schedule, I'm also a part time social studies teacher :). It's been an adjustment for sure, and while it's not ideal, I trust that our administrators made a decision based on what was best for our kids. I do often ask myself, though, at what point will it be enough?

There's so much more I could say, but like always, I've waited to long to say it, so I don't even know where to begin. I'll try to be better...but no promises.

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