The First Week and a Half

The lack of posts lately is testament to the fact that work has officially begun for me. Yes, charter schools start incredibly early. We don't have any kids yet, but rather there is extensive professional development and orientation for teachers prior to the actual start of the term. This is very good for me because I am going to be teaching a class that is brand new to me - Living Environment (Biology for non-New Yorkers) - in addition to one Earth Science class.

At first I was bummed to be teaching bio rather than more Earth Science, but my anger over that has died down enough for me to begin looking forward to a new challenge. Today I finally started to feel my feet touching down on some solid ground. We new teachers were given an overview of expectations and rules and consequences, good basic stuff that makes me feel more comfortable working in a new place where I definitely don't know all the procedures.

Am I happy overall to have made the leap? Yes.

Last week, the principal of my old school resigned and a replacement has not yet been named. The situation there is unlikely to get much better for at least the first year, plus students are going to feel that they caused the principal to leave, which will only make them more defiant. While I will miss "my kids" and the co-workers I had truly bonded with over the past to years, I don't think I will regret my decision in the long run.

I can see that I have a long and challenging year ahead of me, but I am ready to be in a more supportive environment and really get to work on becoming the best teacher I can be. Hopefully I'm well on my way!

Comments

[Kelvin Kao]

Hm, they didn't interview you just to teach earth science? A little strange. But I guess that's how logistics worked out.

Good to see that they have such emphasis on prep time for you guys! This sounds really promising already.

[Teacher's Diary]

Yes, I was surprised too, as I DID interview for an Earth Science position. I guess this is just one of the things about a charter school - nobody just teaches one thing and even may change what they teach from year to year. But the good part about that is that most of the other teachers have taught everything at least once and are very open to helping you out, so there are a lot of great people to turn to for advice. I know I'm going to need a lot of that this year. Still, I'm kind of excited to be teaching something new!