Summer

It was great to be able to meet with my class one more time and let them know I had a job. I worked very hard to get it - I had business cards printed up, my entire portfolio is online. I thought my effort had paid off and I was very excited.

The first week of June we took a mini vacation and I was able to talk to the music teacher I would be working with on the phone. The first thing we talked about was the class. It's a grade 10 class and it's team taught. Basically we get 60 kids between the two of us. He'll take the woodwinds, and I'll get the brass and percussion, and some days they will be together. He's the department head and really enjoys this form of teaching. I was both relieved and bummed. I really wanted to have my own class that I could do stuff with, but it did take a lot of the pressure off as far as prep for the class. The next thing he told me was about the band trip. Turns out October 4th we are going to Florida on a band trip, and I get to go too! I was super excited. I tried to remain professional on the phone and not sound like a kid, but who am I kidding, I was completely hyped up about it.

The next week I went to the school to see the grade 9 band concert - these would be my kids next year. I met the teacher and saw my classroom. All very exciting. Now I needed to get a summer job. I hadn't worked all year and we were broke.

I found a job teaching ESL to kids on a short exchange from France. I was scheduled to do an 8 day session with them in June and 12 days in July. It was ok money I thought, but the more I got into it, the worse it got. It required a ton of driving with no gas money, but it did give me a bit of experience teaching ESL. The end of June I was offered a job working as a Special Needs counselor with kids at camp working one on one with them. I took the job, even though it would be way more work and with a bunch of teenagers, but I thought it would be ok. I survived.

Just before camp started the Principal called me again. He asked how I felt about teaching English. I told him if he wanted me to stand on my head and teach Calculus I would. I just wanted to teach full time. He told me he was adding a section of English to my timetable - grade 10 applied. Keep in mind I haven't even taken English since High School. I did love English then, I figured why not, it'll be fun!

I was able to get to the high school once before it closed for the summer to pick up resources. They sent me home with a stack. Normally the school is open most of the year but this summer the school was to be closed for asbestos removal. I wasn't going to be able to get in until the last week of August (which starts today actually).

I did prep most weekends - usually a few hours each day. I figured up until the first week of August I probably did 20 hours of prep or so and I still had nothing planned - so far it was all reading the books, making notes etc. The first week of August I had off, and I did prep that week as well. I did about 10 hours in one day alone, about 25 hours all week I would guess. I then took a bit of a break and finished my summer job. So I'm up to about 50 hours this summer of prep, and do you know what I have full planned? 4 days. That's it. It's such a long process as a new teacher.

So now I am starting my last week of summer. Now my blog journal is up to date. On Monday and Tuesday I will do prep. Wednesday I am at a high school in Welland for the New Teacher Induction Program Orientation day. Luckily I met a girl at the board orientation who will also be teaching at my school, so we are going to hook up and try and help each other out. Thursday I am at the school, hopefully doing some photocopying and planning. Friday - Sunday will be prep and hopefully Monday will be relaxing, and then come Tuesday school starts! I can't believe it's that close. I've spent too much time blogging today, off to do more prep.