Reflections before Day 1

I had grand plans this summer with respect to my classroom. 

I would come up with a cool theme. I would create a new bulletin board around my new section names (moons around Jupiter!). I would be able to go thru and organize all of my resources spread out over [take a breath] bookmarks, Facebook saves, email, Instagram pictures, podcasts, Feedly feeds, Evernote notebooks and Google Drive folders. I would plan new activities and streamline my stale/boring curriculum. 

Yeah, that did not happen. 

Instead to quote Sam Sifton of the NYtimes (who is quoting Sylvia Plath) [Sifton] “We’re hurtling through the season now” [Plath] “The best of the summer gone and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time” 

Wow! I open up a random email and the thought/truth is right there. Life moves fast. My summer will be over in a few hours. A new school year is beginning

and I needed a reminder that this is a special time. I am a teacher. I will be fine, without a theme or a new bulletin board. And I had a wonderful summer. 

First, with a bit of relaxing time, after school got out. I usually leave the island THE DAY we get out of meetings. This summer, I had 2 weeks here to decompress. Read. Watch TV. Hike. Thinking about it, I honestly don’t remember what I did. 

Then, family adventures in Vancouver. We finally can enjoy each others company. 

Back to Boston to hang out with my niece. She is of a cool age. Everything is new. We read Greek Myth and then went to the museum to look for Greek art. We hunted for the best cupcake. We ran on the Rail Trail. We spent nights at the grandparents (her great-grandparents). We had lots of ice cream. 

Then, surprisingly, off to Switzerland for epic adventures with friends. For days, up to leaving, I agonized over what to bring. Did I really need ANOTHER sports bra? New hiking pants? But, in the end, all I needed was a determination to hike up big mountains. After a difficult year with severe health challenges, I was ready. 

Back to Boston for a hot minute, before meeting up with the Duke Girls in Asheville, North Carolina. Gosh, at some point, I was so worried about this trip. Would I still fit in with my group of friends? But, my friends are awesome and killing it in so many ways. I had lots of laughs and GREAT food while hanging out. I also saw my alma mater for the first time in 22 years. 

And, I’ve been back on the island for more than a week. It has been hot!!! But perfect for me to realize that it is okay that I didn’t get thru my To-do list (and maybe never will). I read. I binged watched Stranger Things and Veronica Mars. I ran. 

And now I set my alarm for tomorrow. I pack my bag. I am ready for tomorrow. 

new beginnings

Ok, so it is a time for new beginning....a time to let go of the summer.....change perspectives......whatever

Back to school tomorrow.

Just meetings, but I do have to wake up at 5:30 am. Kids arrive on Thursday.

Today, I spent most of the day, counting down the minutes. Both excited to start something new, and in a bad mood, because my life of leisure was going to change. It is now 9:15 pm and the original plan, had me, in bed and asleep 15 minutes ago.

Some thoughts going round my head:

#1 - yes, I am anal and organized in my random thoughts
I teach 8th grade, because it is an incredible emotional time. I remember 8th grade very well. You are up (Wow, KS likes me) and down (TP was born). I started to "like" school. I had favorite teachers, who challenged me (Wendy, or Ms. King in Ceramics, Mr. Dudney in science, Mr. Bussey in English, Mr. Bird (advisor) in Latin, Ms. Fernandez in Spanish, Ms. Sullivan in Math, and Mr. Chamberlain in Civics)

so, as a teacher, you grow incredibly close to the students......but they leave, and head to better things......many, like I would, don't look back.......this seems to work for me.

I still have connections to a handful of former students. Some have gone on to become teachers themselves. I had the honor of choosing DUKE because of my 6th grade teacher. This year, one of my students choose DUKE because of me, weird.

#2 am I ready for school? Back in June, I had all these plans to revamp my curriculum. While I did read a TON of books (24 to be exact), I didn't quite exactly do much planning.....good? bad? I don't know yet. I did learn some things that I want to add from my summer grad school class on arts integration. I have other good things filed away.

#3 plan for this blog. Since previous I have, I think, two posts (actually I started it because of a grad school class), my plan for this blog is to chronicle my 6th year. Ideally, I want to use for my evaluation of cycle 4. But not sure if that will work.....whatever, it will still be quite cathartic to write.

in the end......it is time to get my butt off the couch and back in the classroom......work on going from good/ok teacher to MASTER/effective teacher.