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2002-08-27 - 9:12 p.m. Well. I just discovered today that my job is going to be twice as hard as it was last year. I just happened to go by school and just happened to ask the principal if I would be teaching the same things as last year. Well, no I'm not. And it's a week before school starts. So. I guess this happens to many people, but I wasn't expecting it. I thought at the most I might be given an advanced sophomore class, but I didn't want that. Instead, I was given an advanced sophomore class AND one class of freshmen. To refresh your memory, last year I taught all regular sophomores and seniors. The year before I taught all "regular" juniors and seniors (except I had two classes with just IEP students, so that was not really actually two preps). So anyway, instead of two preps I have four. And I have the dreaded freshmen. I'm hoping I can handle this. I'm looking on teaching freshmen as a positive thing and am hoping that I can mold them into good little high school students. I'm hoping that they will be just scared enough, but have the enthusiasm that eighth graders have, that they will be perfect angels for me. HA HA. What I'm really not looking forward to is the advanced sophomores. Having never taught an advanced class, I really just don't know how to approach it. I have some ideas, but I'm really not into it. I don't want to teach advanced kids, I am just fine with my regular ones. I think it is sort of unfair, too, that I am doing the advanced because last year the other teacher who was going to retire did it. So yes, it was unfair that she had three English preps last year, but it is also unfair that I now have four--two that are new to me, whereas she could have just done most of what she did last year if she had it again. But whatever. As much as I'm sort of pissy about this whole thing, I'm trying to approach this as a POSITIVE CHALLENGE. Freshmen will be FUN. And they will LOVE me. And they will also do whatever I want, because they don't know any better. Not to mention everyone is going to be astounded by how well I work with them, and tell me I should have always been with freshmen. HA HA. We'll see, but I really am trying to approach this as a challenge. I can do it, right? I'm not even really clear why this happened, but I'll just try to make the best of it. I think it might have been because of the numbers of kids at each level, because last year I had three classes of seniors, and this year I will only have two. That means the numbers in those two classes will be around thirty. The other classes will be smaller, but still. Thirty seniors is still thirty kids. I know that some other people have to deal with almost forty, but to me thirty is big. So there's that, too. So basically my schedule will be: 1 class of freshmen, 1 class of advanced sophomores, 2 classes of regular sophomores, and 2 classes of regular seniors. I spent about an hour today going through boxes of the new books trying to find a teacher's edition of the freshmen book. Well, I couldn't find one. I am just using a student one right now. So that pissed me off, too. Tomorrow I will be able to get a copy of it, I think, so it's not too much of a setback. I did meet two of the new teachers, which was one of the reasons I wanted to go to school today (tomorrow is our official first day). I met the new art teacher. She is 27, married, and will be commuting an hour. So I don't know if she will be my new best friend as I planned. I was hoping she would be 24, single, and would be living here. She seemed nice enough, but seemed rather bewildered. I assured her how great it was to work here (and then proceeded to the office to find out about my brand new schedule...grrr). I don't think they gave her much idea of what to expect and I had to tell her about the tardy policy and such. I offered help if she ever needs it, but those new people rarely come to me for help. The other new teacher just came from another state and will be starting his fourth year. He seemed cool (and kind of cute), but I couldn't tell how old he was. At the oldest, thirty, but I think he is more like 25-28. Maybe I'll find out later. He is replacing the other science guy, though, so I assume they will have their science guy posse again. It's not like I ever see the other teachers much anyway, so it doesn't really matter. It would be nice to have a friend to talk to at school, though. Whenever anything happens to me that I feel like I need to talk, I don't really have anyone to vent to. I still do sometimes, but it's not like there is that one friend that I can go and vent and feel a lot better. I want that one friend. My sleeping schedule is all crazy so I don't know how on earth I am going to get to bed tonight and get up at at 7 am. Thank goodness I live so close to the school (I have to be there by eight). I am such a dork, I am SO looking forward to the donuts they will have for us tomorrow morning. On special days (first day back, inservice days) they have donuts and juices for us before our meetings and I just love it. It's the small things, right. Speaking of small things, I need to get contacts or something. I was sitting in my car the other day at a stop light and two boys saw me and yelled, "Ms. Boombastic!" and waved. I waved and smiled but since they were across they street I couldn't make out their faces. I can see well enough to drive without glasses, but I can't make out small details at a distance. It really sucks. I don't want to wear my glasses all the time because I am vain like that. I'm going to try to go to bed by midnight. I spent most of the evening trying to study up on the freshmen lit. book. I am going to have to do Romeo and Juliet with them. I think the Leo version of the movie is rated R, which sucks. I think I also have to do The Odyssey with them, and that is not something I'm looking forward to. I really didn't like it much when I read it my freshmen year. I know that wasn't that long ago, but it just seems sad to me that nine years ago we read the exact same things in freshmen English as they do now. For all I know, they've been reading those same works since public education started. Don't even get me started... American Idol was good tonight. I'm really glad Justin did such a nice job and I hope that it comes down to him and Kelly. If Nikki beats out Justin I will die. I don't think Justin will win (like I once thought), but I do want him to come in second. I will buy his CD for sure. I don't even have a crush on him, there's just something about him that I love. I voted for him four times, and voted for Kelly twice. This is the first time I've ever voted more than once for someone, before I thought it would be more ethical to vote only once for each person I wanted, but that went out the window tonight. I am sorry that I didn't stick to my moral values, but whatever. :) My mom actually says that she likes freshmen best, so I'm hoping that will be true for me, too. She says they are little and cute. There are definitely some things I'm looking forward to about starting school, but I feel so completely overwhelmed right now. Hopefully I will be able to do okay. I think I had a dream about Shaggy last night. I can't remember it, but I hope it involved lots of sex. :)
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