The Start to the Third Year

Tuesday was the start of my Third Year in the district and it seemed like I never left, as in there was simply no summer vacation.

Same people stopped in to say hello, same people stopped in to check their e-mail or whatever prior to the start of the school day. It was almost eerie, thinking that the months of June, July, and August never occurred!

But as the day wore on, I was actually more mentally prepared than I thought. I was confident in my tasks, confident as I presented my new classroom management plan to the students, and overall I just had a better understanding of the goings-on inside the school itself. It's just a shame that this will probably be my last year here.

Tuesday and today were kind of rough because I'm simply not used to the fact that I have to put in 11-12 hour days now, something that my body and my mind have to get used to again. Although I was focused throughout the day, my body was wearing down slightly, but now, it seems like I'm getting used to my workload and my recovery times are a little bit quicker than normal. I can probably get credit to all that softball I played this summer!

But this year, I'm one year wiser, mentally I'm more mature in my profession, and already I've got students questioning my new-found seriousness this year. My second year I came down exceptionally hard on everybody due to my past situation, but this year, I'm more laid back, but again -- serious.

Nothing huge has happened yet in the first couple of days of school, except that I've been getting mobbed by seniors who want to be my student assistant. I've never had an assistant before because my thinking is: "what's the point?!", but I got somebody to help me out during the 6th hour of the day (when I have 5th graders) and he's been a pretty decent help so far. It's kind of amazing how much stuff that I have to do in a day (and I want it all done before I leave for home) and this guy really picks up the slack in my day.

Tomorrow and Friday should breeze by as I am looking forward to this weekend for a little rest.