Brand New Colony

If I were one of my students, I would be a senior right now. That's right ladies and gents, I am officially starting year four of my illustrious teaching career tomorrow. I have no idea what's in store for me and the school this year. Will it be a good year? Will we emerge unscathed and unbruised with our our brains a little weightier from all the learning that went on? Will our herculean attempts to turn this ship around be fruitful or are we just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

New things in store for me this year..

• No more freshmen.
• No more algebra.
• No more earth science.
• No more FRESHMEN!!!
• Teaching my physics curriculum for the fourth year (I'm an old pro).
• Teaching the AVID elective for 11th graders.
• Possibly being team leader for the 12th grade small learning community.
• Probably being a lead teacher for our afterschool program again.
• Quiet time and transcendental meditation rolled out for the whole school over the course of the year.

All in all I'm pretty stoked to finally be teaching classes that I want to teach. I like to think I've paid my dues.. three years of teaching wildcard classes (chemistry, algebra, earth science). But really I'm just lucky and blessed to still have a job and actually be happy with what I've been assigned to for this year. I'm still skeptical about the meditation thing and how it's going to improve our students' lives, but at this point anything is something. I guess I'll update more on the AVID thing later, but if you're curious you can look at www.avid.org for more info on what that's all about.

So yes, day one is tomorrow. Begin the begin. Since it is my fourth year, I know not to get too anxious or excited about what's to come. I've learned to roll with the punches and appreciate the little victories. I am apprehensive about what kind of tragedies are in store for us.. but who knows, maybe this will be a tragedy-free year for the O'C. One can only hope. Without hope, what else is there? Bring it on, year four.