Well, the leaves are turning amber and gold and the stores are advertising tons of sales for everything from glittery tees to flashy pencil cases. This all must mean one thing: September has arrived and with that all things back to school.
I approach this time of year with some anticipation and always much trepidation. On the professional side, I juggle many responsibilities as a teacher or more specifically, an English Specialist for multiple elementary grades. For the last couple of years, I have tried to steel my nerves against the inevitable anxiety and have prevailed to some degree. I try to go in with zero expectations (hard task!) other than to expect the unexpected. Things will always change from the way they were and I have to adapt with that or die trying. With the launch of every school year, there are always new things coming down the pike to complicate and suck up our time and this has been no different.
During summer, I try to go into zen mode and just focus on my family and friends. By early July, I usually accomplish this goal. Then come August, I begin to contemplate anything I want to improve upon in my teaching. Now that the first day of school is a few mere days away, I am spending part of this Labor Day weekend getting my mindset back into the swing of lesson planning. Once I do that, I am much more focused and productive. Just this morning, I've been planning activities for the first few days as well as getting a picture of what direction the first month or two should be for four different grade levels. We're talking about planning activities for learning the alphabet and initial letter blending, story element skills for a literature unit, an author study, a unit on informational text features and structures, and of course early essay skills. Is your head spinning yet? Yeah, well mine is too. These topics are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the areas I need to cover and often make me dizzy just thinking about them.
Remember when you were in school and had a book report due? And a math test to study for? And a research paper to write? And about twenty other things that needed to be done all by the next day? That sort of stress is an occupational hazard in the life of a teacher and you accept it when you join the profession. Doesn't make it any easier on your brain though! The funny thing here is that I actually relish the challenge. It's part of the creative joy in this job at my school where we are afforded a certain amount of autonomy. The public school system is definitely better funded and supported than in the private sector (in most cases anyway), but you are also hamstrung by many district, state, and national expectations such the CCSS and NCLB. Our school has its flaws for sure and we often have to learn to do without or work within space confines that limit our options. However, I am grateful for the general freedom I am given as a teacher to educate my students in a way that honors the best practices methodology as well as giving me personal discretion to instruct them as I deem best suits their learning styles and my teaching style.
In addition, to starting off the year with the normal stuff, I am also aiming to add to my plate (yes I must be crazy). I've been teaching a freelance art class after school for the past three years and I love it! I get to teach drawing and be the artist I always longed to be as a child. In addition to that, I hope to join the PBIS committee as my school pushes forward to create a school-wide expectation system. It has been a long time coming and I need to flex my professional muscles a bit more. I've devoted much of my energies to learning my craft and balancing my home life. We'll see how it all plays out.
Speaking of my home life, many changes continue to take place on that front. The kids have some new clothes, shoes, and school supplies ready to go. They are growing like weeds! N now wears a size 12, so we got him size 13 to give him room to grow. He stands at about 5'8" and has to look down at me now. Oh where did my baby boy go? He is fast becoming a young man with his 14th birthday just a month away. K is in a size 7-7/12, just a size or so behind my feet. I often hand off my smaller clothes now to her. They are still a bit too big on her, but at the rate she is sprouting it won't be that way for long. We are bracing ourselves for the onslaught of homework this year and potential extracurricular commitments they will participate in.
With the plan to move sell our house in the spring still looming over us, I shudder at the thought of all that will entail. We have much to pack, fix, and purge in the coming months. It will be a busy school year. Again, I just have to go back to my plan to just breathe it all in and take each day as it comes.
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