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.
Saturday
the boy
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
Eco Tour
The Boy Returns
The Boy came back from Scout camp -- and he wanted sushi.
And we wanted, for dinner, fried green tomatoes.
Orlando 2023 Day 3
The girls did better today: won two, lost one. The one they lost they should have won: it was not a team that dominated them, but they lost in the third set.
Finally, we have some pictures from the Boy: K went for the parents' night at scout camp today. He showed her around where they sleep, their bathhouse, and myriad other things -- all the details that make camp camp.
"E is having a good time," she texted, which assuaged my biggest worry--that he would be reluctant to engage with others and not really make any good friends.
The opposite seems to be happening.