Lake Day
the boy
First Day of Soccer
The Boy played his first two games today: tied the first one.
And in the meantime, two idiots proved themselves to be such.
Fight
The Boy told me about it the moment I walked into the house. "There was a fight at school today. A big fight." Apparently, two boys got into it during lunch, and it happened right in front of the Boy.
"Were you scared?" I asked.
"Yes!" he replied without hesitation or self-awareness of the fact that such a response would definitely mark him at some schools among some kids. One of those involved was someone E knows, and he was a little worried about what was happening to his friend and a little worried about what might happen him.
"I'm definitely in middle school now," he concluded.
Saturday
Such was the day -- working in the yard, working in the house -- that I took one photo the entire day, of the Boy doing his part.
The rest stays in my head -- and in my legs, arms, and exhausted body.
School Year’s Eve
Tomorrow, I begin my twenty-fifth year teaching, my sixteenth with Greenville County Schools. Am I ready? I've reviewed and signed all my IEPs and 504 plans. I've worked with other eighth-grade teachers to create this week's lesson plans (and of course, the administration tweaked the lesson plan template, as they do every single year). I've spoken to teachers and administrators about which students I need to focus on early in order to form a good relationship so that when things sour, I have that good relationship to appeal to. I've spoken to my co-teacher in my inclusion class about what we'll be doing and had a fruitful discussion about how we will work together. I've watched (almost) all my safety training videos (the same ones, year after year after year after year after year...). I've done everything I'm supposed to do, and I still don't feel ready for tomorrow.
Part of that is because of what I've heard about this year's group of kids. "They're the toughest bunch we've ever had" was the common assessment of most seventh-grade teachers. I'm not looking forward to a year like that. Yet they always mature some over the summer, so I'm hopeful that will mitigate things a bit.
The Boy, though, feels even less prepared than I do. "I just want to go back to elementary school" has been his mantra. New starts always make him nervous, but K pointed out to him all the new things he's thrived in this summer: a new scouting troop; summer camp with a different scouting troop; band camp with a group of strangers. Still, he's reticent. I can understand that.
The Girl is just ready to go. She's got so many AP classes this year that it's troubling (seven out of her eight classes are AP: four the first semester, three the second semester), but she's stubborn and resilient. She'll make it.
K is not looking forward to the morning rush, but she and I will slip back into it.
Only the animals are calm about it...
Scout Family Campout Day 2
Scout Family Campout Day 1
Trombone Shorty
Getting Ready
The start of the school year approaches — only a little over a week and a half from now, I’ll be starting my twenty-fifth year in the classroom. Or twenty-sixth? Or twenty-fourth? Twenty-somethingth. This is a year of changes in a lot of ways. My room layout has been, more or less, the same for the last decade. If it works, why mess with it? But now I have a new desk from K and a new bookshelf from our house, so things are getting a little bit of a shakeup.
I’m also planning some changes in the simple things we do every day in class. No more article of the week for on-level classes as the bell-ringer. More discussion in class, more discussions that are simple, shorter. More writing, writing that is less structured and more choice-oriented.
The Boy and I spent a good bit of the late morning and early afternoon in my classroom, arranging things, putting books back on shelves, wiping down a few things.
And So It Begins
