August 17th in a Series of Short Letters

1.

Dear Ants -

I am deeply sorry for having disturbed your colony when I tried to pour myself a bowl of cereal this morning. It was terribly inconsiderate of me, especially the part where I unceremoniously dumped half a box of delicious cereal into the trash. Or the part where I cold-bloodedly drowned you in the sink to clean your swarming black bodies off the white porcelain bowl. Next time I will try to be more careful.

Yours, Heather

2.

Dear eSchoolMall -

It would be really, really stellar if you would actually load pages when buttons are clicked. I know this may be a hard concept - especially because there are SO many buttons and options on your site, but it would still be excellent if loading one did not require 40 minutes and 4 restarts to get it done. Thanks for your help in the future.

Sincerely, Heather

3.

Dear Donors' Choose -

I love you. I really do. But I am highly and deeply disappointed that you do not allow teachers to get newspaper subscriptions or have a better selection of news and current events supplies for high schoolers. I was again saddened when googling a document camera generated higher quality for lower price than I could find from your vendors. We need to do better.

Just some things to think about. - Heather

4.

Dear Counter and Floor Contractor -

I am so, so glad that you are so, so good at doing you job. I mean you really can't do better than delaying my move in four separate times, for a total of essentially a month late and have the floors still not be laid. Seriously, great job. I am just about speechless.

But really - could you please stop fucking me? I kinda want a place to live. That's all. Before I started my new job would have been nice, but at this point, could we just shoot for before my students turn up in my classroom? I'd actually appreciate that.

Get it done, already! - Heather

Ball: Rolling

Remember all that nervous energy from the last post? It's getting under control. How you ask? I have a long term plan that I borrowed and adapted; I have seven objectives written for my first unit; and almost without thinking about it, I'm getting the bones of my management plan worked out. Booyah, nervous energy, booyah.

Along with school stuff, life stuff is also coming together - Boyfriend and I got most of our furniture moved this weekend, many boxes into the house (if not unpacked) and the carpeters should be there RIGHT NOW laying down new carpet and tile. As soon as they're done, we'll be official! So so so so EXCITED! And totally ready to be in my own home again after two months of couch surfing. Once we get unpacked and decorated, I'll post some pictures.

And, choir starts in two weeks. I. Love. Fall.

Well... I'm off to move things into my classroom. Look for a first unit plan in a few more days!

Year Three Begins Now.

I am nearly overwhelmed with self-consciousness. I feel like I should be calm and confident going into my third year of teaching, but instead I'm more nervous than ever. I don't feel as though I was as successful as I should have been during the last year. I'm changing settings - moving to traditional HS, and teaching a course I'm less comfortable with (World History instead of 8th grade U.S. or Civics and Econ). I need new management strategies, I need new lesson plans, I need a revised long-term plan... So much to do.

What I know about my classes so far is that they will be around 15 to 18 students, and one period is honors level. When I asked what that means, all I was told was to use more primary sources. Thanks.

I really wish I was still getting support from TFA, but that is not the case. My two years are done and I'm cut off. I understand why they do this - Program Directors have SO much on their plates already (especially this year, as they take on greater community engagement responsibilities), and it would be very difficult to have them continue in a mentorship role with "graduated" corps members. So as my old roommate would say, it's time to put on the big girl panties and do it on my own.

Old mantras are also helpful - beg, borrow and steal. Going to tap as many resources as possible. I know I have plenty for curriculum and assessment, and I'm reading a lot about management this summer.

In other news, I've got two more weeks until I move to my new house. I'm moving to the halfway point between "civilization" (read: choir, restaurants, movie theatre, coffee shops, mall) and school. It's a bit farther than I wanted to drive to school, but got an unbeatable deal on rent at this house, which should compensate for the gas.

If I stayed a 3rd year, I had originally wanted to work on a lot of community building within the school - sponsoring clubs (and encouraging other staff to as well), advocate for student activities and school spirit initiatives, that sort of thing. Not knowing if I was going to be here or not for most of the summer very much delayed that planning however. I'm hoping that myself, another 3rd year and any other TFA teachers who want to help can still do something though. Our kids need something to look forward to. A reason to care about BC Schools - especially the high schoolers. I would have quit school too, if there was nothing but sub-par classes to look forward to as well.

Right now I need to get back to my long-term plan draft. Time to plan some units!!