School Starts Again

After 10 weeks away from school, the normal work day starts again on Wednesday for me. Along with every other teacher in my county, I report to Mount View School on Wednesday to hear a message from the superintendent. My afternoon will be spent in a special education meeting there. Most other teachers will spend the afternoon at their own schools. On Thursday Cheryl and I go together for a follow up on training in the Orton-Gillingham method of reading instruction. During the afternoon I go to a workshop on DIBELS - a testing system, the letters stand for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.

Friday I get to see my old school for the first time. We'll have a faculty senate meeting and probably a curriculum team meeting. Then teacher schedule for the start of the year will get finalized. Monday the kids arrive...

After three summers of full time graduate work I managed to escape that grind this year. That's not to say I did nothing. I read our new 180-page state policy on special education. I attended a week long training academy the last week of July that trained elementary school teachers to use our new reading curriculum. I went to a two day workshop on co-teaching. I traveled to Georgia twice to take certification tests there. And I read Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and For Whom the Bells Toll by Hemingway.

The first few days will be a challenge. After 10 weeks without much of a schedule I have misplaced my body clock. Going to bed and getting up seem irrelevant at the moment - it's what you get done while you're awake that matters. My responsibilities will change somewhat; at the moment it looks as though I will not be involved in math instruction this year, but I'll be more involved in reading. And I look set to have some added responsibility in the area of technology for students. Ask me about the details after I go to the school on Friday.

Hopefully it will be a good year...