It is about that time. Sigh. I read the Sunday paper and there are already back to school sales. How can this be? It is like July. I haven't even gotten to the "I'm bored with summer, what am I gonna do?" phase yet. I still find contentment in sleeping in (which means getting out of bed at like 8:30 AM) eating whatever I want whenever I feel like it, and peeing freely (well, maybe not totally freely..). What does this say about me? Not really sure.
I am starting to shift into the productive side of my summer. I have integrated my science curriculum with Language arts and mathematics. I created a scope for science for the entire year, broke it into the major sciences we study (Physical, Life, and Earth Science, with processes integrated throughout each science) and within each set, broken it into units. I then started doing curriculum mapping for my first units in science. I am planning to do the same with math and language arts. We have a district curriculum, but I have been falling away from it more each year, and focusing more on the state standards.
I have also been doing some teacher reading and am looking into some summer trainings I am interested in doing before I have to go back to school. Thinking of my normal, gotta get ready to go back shpell, trying to convince myself that I should be more productive. I will be, and at moments I am pretty darn inspired, but right now I still want to watch "quality" cable television and eat my Strawberry Newtons. I still look at the things that await this school year, and I can only guess at the "specialness." I have 2 new teammates. I have the same KIS (which could be her last year, but I doubt I would be that lucky). A new principal. My first year with a real contract, no mentor (I will miss that, actually). Same old jobs and responsibilities, plus some other ones. A new group of kids. It is crazy. Three years ago, I was the new kid on the block, the teacher that kids thought was a sub. I was the newbie that the veteran teachers played pranks on, like tricking me into chipping in for floor buffing, or prank calling my classroom. Now the veteran teachers respect me a little more, and play fewer pranks (though I still get the occasional harassment). Kids all want to be in my class (it is crazy, and I am not always sure why the response is so crazy..it is a mixed blessing). And now I also have a college intern. Me? With an intern? I still remember the time when I questioned that someone thought it was a good idea for me to be left to teach children. That was when I felt like I was doing everything wrong, and those mean veterans that were messing with me tried to reassure me that I was doing just fine...
And now I am here, being left to shape the mind of a future teacher. I still remember when I was an intern. I actually ran into one of my teacher friends who I met as a student teacher at a conference this summer. She said that I have become a lot more confident as I have come into my own. It is hard being a student teacher in someone else's class with kids that aren't totally yours. I worried about becoming a teacher, but after becoming one, I realize that there is liberation in having your own class. Of course, there is administration, the instructional coach team, and the KISes of the teacher world. Even with the outside forces, you still have so much influence. Now my influence is being spread beyond room 312.
Oh, the memories and visions of the future, all hodgepodged in my scattered brain. I am not ready to go back, but I eventually will be. Am I a dork to even be thinking about any of this right now? Nah. I'm too cool, I am no square...I am more of a rhombus..or an equilateral rectangle. Oh, wait..those are all the same thing..oh well..