I’m now writing because I finally have a week free – at least free of curriculum. Just like all past years, I seem to spend 12-13 quality hours each Saturday doing curriculum. Will it never end? I mean, like, it’s been three years of non-stop work on Saturdays and often 4 hours on Sundays as well. I think that so long as I keep introducing new classes or keep tweaking old classes the answer will be no – I’ll never have my weekends free. I can now see why it takes the average teacher five years to settle in and get good at their job. Year 4 (ish) and I’m still learning how to teach! I have a great mentor this year who is really challenging my assumptions about teaching, which is a good thing. I’m learning so much, but it also means that I need to change (again) what I have been doing. And in the process of re-learning how to teach, I still have to do the BTSA (new teacher program) and this year, with a new crew leading it all, we have all new hoops to jump through. The BTSA folks just lightened the load a bit by only having two projects this year, rather than three, but each project takes about six weeks to complete. The paperwork alone is going to take me about 10 hours to complete. I’ll be glad when it’s over. Truthfully, I’m learning more from simply talking to my mentor teacher. The BTSA program is a lot of red tape (but hey, it comes with a mentor teacher, so that’s something), but red tape that is required by the State of California if I want to keep teaching, so I do it.
In class, things are finally humming along. It took longer than last year because I have some pretty packed afternoon classes that have been a behavior challenge. These afternoon classes finally settled down, mostly, at week 13. Now I can teach. I suspect that part of my issue is the size of my classroom: with little room to move around, the students react much quicker to every little thing, and the room itself is louder. I also simply can’t keep certain students far enough away from each other. Last year, I was swimming in space and it made a huge difference. Even with a class of 36, I still didn’t feel crowded. This year, anything over 32 feels packed. Maybe I shouldn’t have moved after all… except I like being in civilization and near my department. I guess there are no perfect solutions on this campus… except for class size… and maybe my choice of class subjects. I have been blessed to have small US History class sizes. It really makes a difference. World History will always be packed because all sophomores are required to take it, and admin seems to only schedule World History in the afternoon. As I bring Humanities online, perhaps I can convince them to make it in the afternoons! I have also been asked to perhaps teach AP World History next year. It sounds like more work – a lot of work in fact – but I would get a motivated group of students who actually want to be there, so that would be a plus. Well… with this free weekend, I must now finish all that BTSA documentation and try to finish my Humanities proposal for next year. The work never ends.