Sunday, August 7, 2011

First Day(s) of School!

So this past week has been quite the overwhelming week! I had three teacher workdays and two days of teaching this week. The workdays were fine and I was able to be productive, but I got very overwhelmed on Monday when they were going over all of the policies, procedures, special circumstances, etc and I thought to myself "How in the world am I going to remember all of this stuff?" Being a teacher is a COMPLICATED job! Tuesday I worked on things for my classes during the workday and then we had orientation. I was able to meet several of my students and their parents and it was really nice, but scary being the peson at the front of the room! Apparently, I was successful though because I had several students go back to the administrative assistant and tell her that they liked me- sweet. Wednesday I spent most of the day in my classroom moving things around and getting it situated. It technically isn't *my* classroom because it is on the community college's campus and it will be used for night classes, but I was able to set up a desk area and arrange the tables so that I could move around a little easier. There are still things that I would like to do to it, but that can come later.

Thursday was a great day. It was a little complicated with the confusion of the first day of school and all, but I really got a good impression of my classes and I think it is going to be a great year. I have a wonderful group of students who are so dynamic and diverse and I can't wait to really get to know them. I hadn't planned quite enough stuff to do on the first day, and part of my plans were messed up because the students don't have their laptops yet (which I thought that they did), but I had planned for several days and just stole plans from Friday. Good lesson already learned! Fridays will be crazy days because they are half days every.single.friday. and the fact that my students come to me at a different time on Fridays then they do the rest of the week. I think I can make the craziness work by having independent work time on Fridays or student conferences or something- we'll see how it goes.

To make this job even crazier, I had to make sub plans for three days (Mon-Wed of this week) because I have county meetings to go to. I had my plans all set, but they were messed up due to the students not having their laptops. Oh the joys of the inconsistencies of teaching!!!!

Catch up!

Ok so here were my goals to do before work and the current standing of these goals:
* Catch up on my project 52.
--- fail. I am currently about 20 weeks behind on project 52. I really hope to catch up! Next year, I hope to actually do project 52 keeping in mind the true intention of the project.
* Get things together for my new apartment.
-- slowly but surely. I don't have everything together, but I have time to get that done. I also haven't started on my table project even though it has been sitting in my garage for about two weeks. I will get there.
* Do a deep clean and organize of my current room.
--- fail but may very well happen this afternoon as I am cleaning the rest of the house in anticipation of my grandparents' homecoming.
* Go to the beach
-- success! I did manage to go to the beach before school started. The water was way too rough for my liking and I could only manage to stay in for about 15 minutes, but the beach itself was wonderful.
* Do something fun and spontaneous.
-- success!

So 2.5/5, such a disappointment. Come back later for an update on the job!

Ponderings on relationships.

Wow, I fail at all of the goals I had set to do before school got back in session. Life just has a way of getting away from me and then I look back and think "where in the world has the time gone?!" In some senses, I also feel like time has a way of slowly ticking by and some things that realistically haven't been a part of your life for very long feel like they have been a part of you forever. Relationships have a way of falling into this later category; you start spending time with someone and feel like you know the person because you spend so much time together. Suddenly, everything starts to remind you of that person- the way someone else says something exactly the way that this person would, the the dance music at the club you are at, shows that you have watched together on tv, movies that you have seen or referenced, silly conversations that you have had, and so on. When you look back, you realize that in the realistic sense, you have not known this person for that long, but you have internalized everything that has come from your time together. It makes me think about the amazing impact that humans have on each other and what that impact means. What am I doing with the impact that I am having on those around me? Am I building them up and making something positive out of our interactions? What happens when something happens to damage that relationship?