Tired As A MoFo

Am I ready for this?

The first day of my teaching career comes and goes. I just cannot believe how tired I am.

The day itself went pretty well. It flew by, I got to know my students pretty well, since I really didn't have anythink planned for the first day. I got a mixture of high schoolers for my 2nd and 3rd periods for Word Processing, juniors and seniors for Personal Law (which, by the way, I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing), and middle school students for keyboarding 5th and 7th periods.

It's like night and day between the high schoolers and the middle schoolers. The high schoolers are so laid back, so lethargic, seeming like they don't care. At first, they were pretty apprehensive of me, but I just came out, "Are you freakin' scared of me or something?" I explained that although at times I can be a hard-ass, I'm going to make the class fun.

What really ticks me off is that I'm stuck with a lot of paper-based material. I thought this was a computer class! My predecessor was old-school. He knew his material, but it's a little outdated. Plus, this stuff really does not explain very well the HOW and WHY certain applications are used with Microsoft Office. I've already stated my complaints to the high school prinicpal, and hopefully next year I can get the students on a new curriculum.

Another thing that's upsetting is that the computer classes are NOT REQUIRED. They're electives and students see them as slack classes. I just cannot believe a school district of this size "frowns" on technology. I've already told my students that they are in for a rude awakening once they hit college. I just might have to bring up my concerns to the school board.

I had the 6th graders right after lunch ... and man, they were completely off the walls. Even after I discussed with them my classroom management plan, they still would not keep their hands off each other. It was constant gabbing, which really drove me nuts. I actually had to holler a few times. The teacher in the room next to mine is also a football coach and that man has got one voice when it comes to yelling. Later on in the locker room, he complimented me on my "hollering" techniques and said that I could possibly rival him!

But after school and such, I went back to my regular routine of coaching my 8th graders. We're in preparation of our first game on Thursday. But after that and when I returned home, I could have just fell down and went to sleep. I had to stay awake though and prepare for tomorrow's classes.

Ah, the life of a teacher. And I'm diggin' it right now.