When I was a student, I dreaded the beginning of August, because it was The Beginning of the End of Vacation. Like many teachers, I think, I did not love being in school. (Maybe that's why I got into teaching, in part: to rectify everything I thought was wrong/bad/unpleasant/pointless/mediocre about how I was taught.) As a teacher, I look forward to it. As a mother of two under two, I look forward to it even more since being in school means I get a whole five minutes between classes to go to the bathroom BY MYSELF as well as twenty-five minutes to eat my lunch in peace. Perspective is everything.
I have a ton of reading to do, and probably won't get all of it done before school starts. I have great plans and expectations for this year, some of which will go spectacularly well, some of which will go spectacularly badly, and some of which won't happen at all. It happens every year. One of the greatest lessons I've learned from teaching is that you're endlessly tweaking and perfecting and shifting and changing what you do, no matter how experienced you are.
I do get to teach Hamlet this year, which thrills me no end. If I can swing it, I'm going to cram all the early and middle English literature into the first few weeks and spend the entire second half of the term on Shakespeare. The great perquisite of being the teacher is that I can spend more time on what I like best. I've enjoyed teaching Midsummer Night's Dream or Henry V for the past few years, but getting to teach Hamlet is total English Nerd Crack.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
I really haven't disappeared (again)
Well. In news of my world, I went back to teaching and found out how little time a full-time teaching job and a full-time mothering job leave one. :-)
Especially when one is pregnant with Numero Due.
So. The first child (the girlchild) will be one in a month. The second child (a boychild this time) will be here in the next few weeks. The teaching career picks back up in August with a new course; I'm picking up a section of world literature for seniors in addition to three sections of British literature for juniors. I'm thrilled about the change, especially since I truly enjoyed the students I taught this year who will be seniors next year!
My fellow teachers and I have a few new tricks up our sleeves for next year. The nicest thing about teaching is that it's never the same thing from year to year, or at least it doesn't have to be. One thing we're implementing is a mandatory grammar test for juniors because we're all tired of correcting the same errors multiple times throughout the year. Another great change we're making is moving the junior research paper from term 3 to term 2.
I'll reserve judgment on these changes for now, but my feeling is that these changes will be positive ones for both the teachers and the students.
Especially when one is pregnant with Numero Due.
So. The first child (the girlchild) will be one in a month. The second child (a boychild this time) will be here in the next few weeks. The teaching career picks back up in August with a new course; I'm picking up a section of world literature for seniors in addition to three sections of British literature for juniors. I'm thrilled about the change, especially since I truly enjoyed the students I taught this year who will be seniors next year!
My fellow teachers and I have a few new tricks up our sleeves for next year. The nicest thing about teaching is that it's never the same thing from year to year, or at least it doesn't have to be. One thing we're implementing is a mandatory grammar test for juniors because we're all tired of correcting the same errors multiple times throughout the year. Another great change we're making is moving the junior research paper from term 3 to term 2.
I'll reserve judgment on these changes for now, but my feeling is that these changes will be positive ones for both the teachers and the students.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Motherhood
I'm not teaching this term. Instead, I'm being taught...by my daughter.
It's strange to see those words in print, especially since this time last year, I never thought I'd write the word "daughter" or "son" preceded by the first person possessive pronoun.
Motherhood has turned my entire world upside down and inside out. Like the vocation of teaching, it's many things I expected, many things I didn't, and both better and more difficult than I imagined it would be. I look at mothers of more than one child with awe now. They went through all of this and still had the courage to go back and do it a second, third, fifth, or eighth time.
I do understand it, though. Despite the sleep deprivation and the physical strain and the emotional toll that a new baby puts on his or her parents, I still find myself returning to the words of the psalmist: "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."
It's strange to see those words in print, especially since this time last year, I never thought I'd write the word "daughter" or "son" preceded by the first person possessive pronoun.
Motherhood has turned my entire world upside down and inside out. Like the vocation of teaching, it's many things I expected, many things I didn't, and both better and more difficult than I imagined it would be. I look at mothers of more than one child with awe now. They went through all of this and still had the courage to go back and do it a second, third, fifth, or eighth time.
I do understand it, though. Despite the sleep deprivation and the physical strain and the emotional toll that a new baby puts on his or her parents, I still find myself returning to the words of the psalmist: "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Nine months pregnant =
The overwhelming sense that there are many, many chores that you should be doing now. Or should have done before you couldn't bend at the waist.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Updates, or "I'm not dead yet!"
Just busy gestating.
2007 wasn't the easiest year of my life, either personally or professionally. It had its high points, indeed, but most of my emotional energy got expended on dealing with infertility or dealing with some of the most challenging students I have ever had.
On the infertility front, after seven months of fertility issues prior to an official diagnosis in July, The Greatest Man in the World and I found out in November that we are expecting our first child this July. I'm in the second trimester, feeling better, and ready for some cautious optimism. The first trimester was rough between constant nausea and chronic exhaustion, but I had great support from TGMitW, our families, and the select few people at work with whom I chose to share our news.
I plan to return to teaching next winter. I've been very blessed to have not one, but two experienced-at-our-school long-term subs who are willing to come out of retirement and teach so that I can stay home with the baby till after Thanksgiving. One of the possible subs is the teacher whose retirement opened the position for which I was hired, so I'm very confident that she knows the course extremely well and that the students will be excellently taught (perhaps better than I would have taught them!) I'm sad that I won't get to teach Shakespeare next year, but it's worth it to be able to stay at home with baby.
Professionally, I think that a nearly six month break from teaching after this year might be a good thing. This year's junior class is challenging. Actually, a small cadre of no more than a dozen boys makes it challenging. They have caused problems with their behavior since they were in the seventh grade, and although people hoped that they would improve with age, it hasn't happened yet. Their behavior has, if anything, become more outrageous: rudeness to teachers, inappropriate comments, rowdiness, attention-seeking behavior...you name it, they're doing it. For whatever reason, they aren't being disciplined as much as they should be.
To maintain order in my classroom, I have to be much stricter in my management than I usually am, and it's frustrating for me. I prefer to have students talking to me and to each other and engaging with the texts we read, and I can't allow my classes to have casual discussions like that this year. I know that many of the non-problem-causing students get frustrated too; sometimes they'll even call the troublemakers out and tell them to knock it off. I've had to hand out detentions like they're candy and generally be a much less relaxed person than I usually am. In years past, I've been able to tell my students what the boundaries are, let them know I'm serious, and then we've been able to play within the boundaries. This year, there's no room for play. There have been moments when I've had to pull students out of class for reprimands or tell them flat-out that they have crossed the line into outright rudeness or inappropriateness. On a couple of occasions, I've felt uncomfortable to the point of being threatened. And I'm not the only teacher who's experiencing this.
We all report them, we all complain...and nothing is done.
This too shall pass.
2007 wasn't the easiest year of my life, either personally or professionally. It had its high points, indeed, but most of my emotional energy got expended on dealing with infertility or dealing with some of the most challenging students I have ever had.
On the infertility front, after seven months of fertility issues prior to an official diagnosis in July, The Greatest Man in the World and I found out in November that we are expecting our first child this July. I'm in the second trimester, feeling better, and ready for some cautious optimism. The first trimester was rough between constant nausea and chronic exhaustion, but I had great support from TGMitW, our families, and the select few people at work with whom I chose to share our news.
I plan to return to teaching next winter. I've been very blessed to have not one, but two experienced-at-our-school long-term subs who are willing to come out of retirement and teach so that I can stay home with the baby till after Thanksgiving. One of the possible subs is the teacher whose retirement opened the position for which I was hired, so I'm very confident that she knows the course extremely well and that the students will be excellently taught (perhaps better than I would have taught them!) I'm sad that I won't get to teach Shakespeare next year, but it's worth it to be able to stay at home with baby.
Professionally, I think that a nearly six month break from teaching after this year might be a good thing. This year's junior class is challenging. Actually, a small cadre of no more than a dozen boys makes it challenging. They have caused problems with their behavior since they were in the seventh grade, and although people hoped that they would improve with age, it hasn't happened yet. Their behavior has, if anything, become more outrageous: rudeness to teachers, inappropriate comments, rowdiness, attention-seeking behavior...you name it, they're doing it. For whatever reason, they aren't being disciplined as much as they should be.
To maintain order in my classroom, I have to be much stricter in my management than I usually am, and it's frustrating for me. I prefer to have students talking to me and to each other and engaging with the texts we read, and I can't allow my classes to have casual discussions like that this year. I know that many of the non-problem-causing students get frustrated too; sometimes they'll even call the troublemakers out and tell them to knock it off. I've had to hand out detentions like they're candy and generally be a much less relaxed person than I usually am. In years past, I've been able to tell my students what the boundaries are, let them know I'm serious, and then we've been able to play within the boundaries. This year, there's no room for play. There have been moments when I've had to pull students out of class for reprimands or tell them flat-out that they have crossed the line into outright rudeness or inappropriateness. On a couple of occasions, I've felt uncomfortable to the point of being threatened. And I'm not the only teacher who's experiencing this.
We all report them, we all complain...and nothing is done.
This too shall pass.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Scottish dancing season
No, you can't shoot the dancers. Although as poorly as I've been dancing lately, it might be considered merciful to shoot me in the foot!
Today was just a show. The best thing you can say about my performance is that I fully embraced the old maxim about being confident in my mistakes. My sweet husband told me, "Unless somebody knew what the right way to do those dances was, they wouldn't have noticed any mistakes." Unfortunately, he does know how those dances are supposed to look when they're done correctly.
Must practice more. In spare time not taken up with 1) obsessing over my not-quite-spotless house but not actually doing anything to clean it, 2) grading student work that's backlogged, or 3) catching up on much-needed sleep...
Today was just a show. The best thing you can say about my performance is that I fully embraced the old maxim about being confident in my mistakes. My sweet husband told me, "Unless somebody knew what the right way to do those dances was, they wouldn't have noticed any mistakes." Unfortunately, he does know how those dances are supposed to look when they're done correctly.
Must practice more. In spare time not taken up with 1) obsessing over my not-quite-spotless house but not actually doing anything to clean it, 2) grading student work that's backlogged, or 3) catching up on much-needed sleep...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
LotR-fest 2.0
At seven in the morning, the faithful began to arrive, armed with cushions, blankets, coffee, and lots of junk food (which, they inform me, does constitute an essential food group when one is under eighteen).
8:02 a.m.: After some frantic running around on my part in search of a grand master key to open the conference center and not a few "one key to rule them all" jokes, we began watching the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Twelve hours and thirteen minutes, three pizzas, dozens of doughnuts, and one roll of toilet paper later, we finished the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
I'm still fascinated by the fact that kids will show up at school on a Saturday for nothing more than watching these movies, especially when many of them were going to the Georgia Tech game that evening. They already wanted to talk about some of the discussion questions I gave them on Friday, but we had to press on with the movie-watching.
As many times as I've seen those films, I still find something new every time I see them. Over the Labor Day weekend, I watched the original Star Wars trilogy with my nephew. It was his first time to see it, and he was glued to the screen. I can't wait till he's old enough to see Lord of the Rings.
Maybe by then I'll be ready to do another movie marathon.
8:02 a.m.: After some frantic running around on my part in search of a grand master key to open the conference center and not a few "one key to rule them all" jokes, we began watching the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Twelve hours and thirteen minutes, three pizzas, dozens of doughnuts, and one roll of toilet paper later, we finished the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
I'm still fascinated by the fact that kids will show up at school on a Saturday for nothing more than watching these movies, especially when many of them were going to the Georgia Tech game that evening. They already wanted to talk about some of the discussion questions I gave them on Friday, but we had to press on with the movie-watching.
As many times as I've seen those films, I still find something new every time I see them. Over the Labor Day weekend, I watched the original Star Wars trilogy with my nephew. It was his first time to see it, and he was glued to the screen. I can't wait till he's old enough to see Lord of the Rings.
Maybe by then I'll be ready to do another movie marathon.
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