Oh Yeah…I Still Have That Other Job

It’s been a wild three weeks. Even though I am going to be teaching again, I still have the other part of my job which requires a whole lot of attention before school begins. Starting mid-August I am busy with materials arriving for teachers that need to be inventoried and distributed. And we have professional learning that always happens before the school year that I need to plan and facilitate. Plus, this year I took on some out of district presenting because, being a teacher, I can always use the extra money even if it means sleepless nights and hours of driving.

It is an interesting brain stretch to train K-2 teachers on an early literacy skills assessment. Then facilitate an introduction of the Units of Study for Teaching Writing for all of our K-5 teachers after spending my whole summer thinking about middle school. But it did make me think that a future blog post should be, “What I Learned about Instruction from K-5 Teachers.” I am definitely going back to middle school a much better teacher for having spent time with elementary teachers. They have management and individualized instruction down.

All of this to say, I didn’t have a second to think about my classroom until Friday at 3:00. School starts on Monday. I was very glad at the moment that I had spent my summer planning. (By the way, anyone who thinks teachers don’t work in the summer is completely wrong.) I’m ready for the first day, but I still have a million questions and fears and anxiety provoking thoughts that deserve a blog post of their own. If I have time Sunday, I may have to write it!