That Time of Year

Back to work! Oh no! Where did the summer go? I went back on Monday and it has been a good week. I’ve had a lot of time in my room to get organized and I even have the first two weeks of lesson plans complete. I need to photocopy some papers today and buy some supplies for labs and then I’m ready. I’ll meet my new students Thursday evening. I have around 115 students on my rolls right now. I know of at least three students who are the siblings of students that I’ve taught in the past. It’s always fun to ask kids if I’ve taught anyone in their family.

One thing that I like about teaching is that I get to know so many kids each year. This will be my 18th year teaching, so over the years I’ve taught at least 1,900 kids. Wow! I run into former students every single time I go to the gym. They always recognize me, but I usually have to think a bit before I remember them. I saw a man yesterday that looked a little bit familiar and sure enough, he came over to me and told me that I had taught him in middle school. Turns out that I taught his wife, too. I surprised him by telling him a few things that I remembered about each of them.

I’m hoping for a good school year. There’s been a lot of change at our school and there’s more pressure than ever for the teachers to make sure that the students perform well on SOL tests. My goal is to stay positive and to not sweat the small stuff. I’m also going to try really hard not to complain about things that I can’t control. We’ll see how long that lasts!