The Impending School Year

With a week of WASC meetings, staff development, and a splash of prep time here and there starting on Monday, I’ve been considering what sort of year this will be. Unlike most jobs, we teachers get a chance to refresh (or at least work different jobs) and start over each year.

I’ve broken it down into two categories, things I’m looking forward to and the opposite.

Let’s start with the positive.

• Not teaching 6/5s or having a student teacher so I will actually have my prep period to myself!
• Teaching AP kids. I was that sort of student and I have been waiting for the right opportunity to take on an AP class – looks like I got four of them.
• Using Moodle. I have been making web pages for my classes for seven years, this year I am going to shift more content online. Moodle will hopefully simplify the process for me, allowing an easy way to format assignments, upload files, and get students to interact online through forums and blogs.
• Finishing my masters program. I started 4.5 years ago. Since then I’ve had two kids, published my curriculum, and planned for three new preps. I took four semesters off in the process and took only once class half the time.

Now for the other list.

• Less money for not teaching 6/5s.
• Teaching AP World History. With the college prep kids, you can get away with so much more. I have a lot of curriculum to learn and create. On the bright side, I’m working closely with a friend from another school.
• Finishing my masters program. Two classes, out until 10pm on Wednesdays, and comps in November are going to prove to be exhausting.
• A potential strike. Nothing has changed over the summer so we right where we left off. The timeline has the strike occurring in November, right around Thanksgiving.
• WASC. This is the accreditation process we must go through every six years. Our coordinator is top notch, but it is a year full of mind-numbing meetings and a high stress visit by the accreditation committee in March.