update, overdue

last monday was supposed to be my first day of professional development at my high school, where i will be in the fall. professional development (PD, for those keeping track) is supposed to be the time when teachers sit around and plan for the next year, addressing areas that need improvement, etc.

i show up at 9:05am, thinking i am a few minutes late, and notice that there were kids roaming the halls. funny, i thought, summer school doesn't start until tomorrow. no matter, i'm sure i am in the right place.

next thing i know a secretary is whisking me into a classroom, hands me a manilla folder, and says "here are your attendance sheets. have fun."

wtf?

as it turned out, the school district only sent my school one science teacher, even though they requested two, and so, ta-da! i have two summer school classes.

by the time i got to my classroom and got my bearings, it was 9:13 and school starts at 9:15. fabulous, two minutes to prep.

i search frantically for anything i might use and find the white board and the chart paper are my only allies today. i have nothing planned, since i thought i was supposed to be observing, not teaching, and don't even have any interesting labs or anything leftover from class with me either.

fun times!

as the kids roll in, i'm desperately trying to think of a strategy for today's class, remembering all the things that we've been taught so far in our SAF sessions: don't turn your back on class! have your materials ready! don't write out all the notes at once! make friends with the janitor!

thankfully my classes are small, usually about five kids show up on any given day, and i only have two periods. they are also in "credit recovery" and not Regents prep, which means i get to make up the curriculum and don't have to bore them with Regents prep questions all the time. i surveyed their earth science interests and have decided on a curriculum which focuses on the dynamic earth (properties, equakes, volcanoes, tsunamis), weather and climate, and astronomy. in four weeks. yee-haw.

the days got better as i had more time to prep, but i was still writing my lessons the night before all last week. got a bit of a head start today by taking care of monday and tuesday's lessons, but still... i keep telling myself that this is all just great practice for the fall. on top of all the other stuff i have to work on for university classes.

hope that wherever you are, you're not writing summer school curriculum.