I hope your still out there!!!
I can't believe how long it has been. I tend to make an unbusy life quickly become pure chaos. The last few months have been no exception. My life has always been a balancing act and I would like to think I have gotten pretty damn good at it.
Let me fill you in.
I ended the summer doing volleyball camps as usual. I was only able to help out briefly in 2 and 1 whole one. I really enjoy watching the kids progress throughout the week, and I couldn't help but think that this is what I was going to be doing a lot in the beginning of my coaching career. In the midst of the volleyball camps I had to make many trips down to southern MD between my teaching job and my coaching job. Luckily, the drive is not extremely long or bad. It did get exhausting though.
After all the camp craziness, it was time for teaching craziness. I reported to school and began to set up my classroom, meet teachers, have meetings everyday, and volleyball tryouts in the afternoon. I don't really know where to start there has been so much. So I will break it up into school and coaching.
School first.
Before the students came into the classroom, I was extremely anxious. How was I going to do a good job at teaching them science? I remember how much I loved science in school and I wanted to make sure that I gave the students the best experience possible. So I was getting ideas from other teachers; though most of the science teachers I was meeting at training were also first years so we weren't much good to each other yet. PE would not be a problem; it is my safe zone in the middle of what will be insane days.
During out teacher meetings we were talking about all the things we needed to make sure we did correctly, upcoming events, issues that were going on. I was completely overwhelmed. It was not longer the issue of how am I going to teach the kids.....it was becoming an issue of all the little things. Uniform checks, attendence procedures, am I going to get the milk count right so these kids can drink milk at lunch? I accepted the fact that I would have to get through the first week of school before I was really comfortable. Luckily, I have amazing teachers around me that are willing to help me whenever needed.
So the kids came to school, it was my first homeroom on my own, and their first day back from summer break.....needless to say it did not go well. I have 21 7th graders that absolutely love to talk. I had a planning period to reflect on what happened during the class and all I could think to myself was how I needed to lay down the law a little better. This is something I am not particularly good at. I believe that kids should be responsible for their own behaviors and understand that they should be quiet during class.........HHHHAA funny for me to think that 7th graders could or would do this. So this is something I am working on.
I made it though the first week......2 half days and 2 full days. By the time I got home from volleyball at 7:00 I would eat dinner and go to bed soooooo early. I guess this is how my life would be for the next 2 months.
As far as volleyball is concerned......I love my girls!!!! It is so great to have my own team. They work hard and are excited for everything they can learn. We had 2 scrimmages, we won one and lost another. I didn't really pay attention to the score because it was a learning experience for the girls. We also had our first real match agains Good Council.....they have won the conference for the past 5 years.....so needless to say we didn't do so hot. But the girls fought until the end and we scored 13 points one game. I am really glad we saw this team first because it was a good opportunity to see what we really needed to work on and where we could go from here. I hope the girls learned as much about themselves as I did.
This weekend was amazing weather and I spent the whole weekend planning lessons for teaching........a fact of life at this point. I figure the more I get done now the less I have to try to do during the week. The next unit for each grade is much more interesting than the first unit was. I am so excited about what I get to do with the kids!! I am loving teaching science and look forward to the year.
I know that this is just a catch up and does not include the juicy details of work and play but what would you have to look forward to if I put it all in one entry?
I will leave you with this.......I intercepted my first note the other day!!! It read:
"I'm sorry to have to do it this way, but we can't be together anymore. My mom is making me break up with you....well I don't really know why....but we can still be friends"
I was heart broken. I thought to myself that maybe they were supposed to stay together and that is why I got the note. funny!
I hope your falls are great!!!! I will make a great effort to update more often!!!!!
