Back to School

School starts February 7th! I am working my butt off trying to get ready. I will be teaching Science and 3 English classes (Language, Conversation, and Spelling) to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. It adds up to 36 hours a week - and since I wanted 4 days a week to have a 3-day weekend, it's not going to be easy. I had thought I'd be teaching from 9 to 2 (that's 6 hours a day) which adds up to 24 hours. But with that many classes, I'll be on a full schedule, from 7 to 2 and with no free hours/planning periods!! Talk about rough....but I guess I'd rather do that and have my Friday off.

I'm partially excited about it because the pay is double what I got last year and will really help us get ahead with our savings. And, since I taught the same English classes last year and am already familiar with the books, I shouldn't have to plan as hard. It's the science that will take up most of my time. Speaking of which, I will get those books on Monday with exactly a week to plan the entire year!! Oh and I don't have a calender either, so I don't know the dates for the Partials or any holidays...

So here's what I'm planning. I'm going to make course overviews and Unit plans for the first partial for each of the classes, and then work a week to 2 weeks ahead with lesson plans, and write some really good classroom rules and disciplinary action to take, like a good teacher! I'm hoping it will be so much better this year, being more prepared. I'm going to do the best I can with what they give me and with the few, few teaching skills I have, and just simply NOT get frustrated with the students. So it will be a great year!