Reality Check

As you are all aware, school started.  Sure, for many it is a time of celebration, mom's discover that their houses aren't always the equivalent of a boxing, or MMA ring, and schedules are implemented to assist with the sanity of all.  I love the schedules - always have.  And I'm a planner, so I usually have a decent idea of what is going on for an entire week - it's just who I am.  But I'm realizing that my planning is in need of some serious tweaking.

First, there is my life.  Sure I'm teaching Jr. English and Creative Writing like I did the last two years, but this year I added Jr. Honors English to my teaching load.  I was happy to do it - still am - but I'm having an awareness that my method of prepping and teaching during the last three years is in no way going to cut it this year.

Example.  During the first two days of school, we toss aside the block schedule and have all our students come the same day.  Sure it is like when I was in high school, but because we will return to the block schedule (A Days and B Days) and because we have probably a hundred or so students who are Success students, taking classes at the college either all morning or all afternoon, the schedule couldn't be A1, A2, A3, A4 Lunch B1, B2, B3, B4; we had to do A1 A2 B1 B2 Lunch A3 A4 B3 B4.  This switch had my first two days as follows Prep, Honors, Prep, Creative Writing, Lunch, Honors, Juniors, Creative Writing, Juniors.  By the end of the first day I was a little confused and my head started spinning and by the second, I felt like the girl on Poltergeist.  I realized that I had one repeat, three VERY different classes to prep for and not nearly enough ready.

I'm pretending I have that under control for now - I'm sure there will be moments where I lose my mind throughout the year and will hopefully have a fresh Diet Coke nearby.

Feeling like I could maybe conquer the world, I then went to Will's classroom blog for our weekly update and saw this -

*Book Report: This month (Aug./Sept.) the student will be required to complete a county report. The students may not necessarily read an entire book about the county, but they will have to research information in order to complete the assignment. The students and I have gone over the requirements and they've been shown examples. I'm sending home a yellow packet that can be used as a guideline for this assignment. Have fun learning about one of the county's in Utah!!! This project is due September 24th. 

I'm in trouble because I did my county reports on Sevier and Iron county - so of course he got Cache.  (Charlotte - I may be hitting you up for some cool things...)* 

I knew there were reports in 4th grade, but I had no idea that it would be this soon.  I'm pretty sure that Will is going to have a paper due before my Juniors do!  And his spelling words?  Eclipse, applaud, attract, trouble, describe, snowflake, freedom, slimy, glance, burglar are a few with the bonus words being elevation and characteristics.  Again, some of my students seven years older are struggling with these words.

I have come to the realization that I'm not ready for 4th grade.   

*On the plus side, the shy, reserved semi-anxiety ridden boy that has been my son for years seems to have disappeared.  He is talking to people he doesn't even know, offering advice to people not necessarily talking to him.  I think it has been very liberating for him to go to a new school where people don't expect him to be shy.