It's been a while. Seems like an eventful 48 hours since my last post. We just got done with a very long after-school professional development session. We have to go back in the morning for several more hours. We even get to present some material on cooperative learning. I actually started to get charged up about the idea last night as we started to look at it in preparation. It was a good feeling. So often I find myself stuck in the immediate minute to minute survival mode of the novice teacher that I forget about all of the good theory that we were given to work with. A step back to regroup would be a good thing now.
That may prove to be a challenge, however. We have parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have a halloween carnival on Thursday. We host the NYO tournament on Friday. We have two days of teacher in-service on the following Monday and Tuesday. After-school programs start on Wednesday of that week. Of course, there is that school and lesson planning thing to keep in mind...it will be a busy time. I am also the freshman class advisor.
The junior high continues to be an enigma, an especially troublesome enigma. Word is apparently beginning to get around town about how bad they are. Extremely resistant to any attempts at reason. Increasingly nasty to everyone who comes into the classroom. Running off subs left and right. Just plain defiant. There are exceptions, but they are definitely in the minority. I wish that I had a quick fix, but I am frankly stumped. I think that even the principal is pretty confused at this point, although he obviously cannot admit defeat.
It will continue to be a challenging year, but time is beginning to accelerate. We are nearly to November, and the holidays will be closing fast. Home to Cadillac, and friends, and red wine!
There was no steam mentioned on a Friday entry. Please tell there is steam in your future.
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