Today is the first day of the school year for our students…yes I know it’s a Friday. I personally loved it when we started on Wednesday: enough time to actually get stuff done but at the same time you could ease into the year. Let’s see how many kids show up (UPDATE: school on Friday did not affect numbers for me & I’m warming up the the idea).
I’m really looking forward to this year for a few reasons:
- I’m only teaching two preps: AP World History & Humanities I. Gosh I’ve only taught 2 classes ONCE and it made my work/home-life balance beautiful. I really can’t wait to really focus on these two courses and nothing else.
- I am actually teaching the same classes 2 years in a row. This will be the FIRST TIME I have taught courses (without any major redesigns) in back to back years. Like #1, this will make my home-life balance so much better. Although it was already wayyyy better at my new school than my old one. Read about that HERE.
- I get to teach 4 Humanities classes!!! This class is an honors-level elective so I *typically* get students who want to be there and are decently academically inclined but looking for a fun course. I have so much fun planning for Humanities because the possibilities are endless! I will certainly be sharing some of my lesson experiments on the blog (even if they fail!).
- I am teaching AP World History again. I went down from 3 sections to 2 (because of a Humanities increase) but that hopefully means that I can give more feedback on writing assignments to help these sophomores improve. Teaching writing is a huge weakness of mine and I hope to make that my goal this year.
- My classroom is finally decently decorated! I’m still making some minor tweaks but it’s not the windowless dungeon I taught in last year. I hope this colorful learning environment helps my students engage with the material in an exciting way (a teacher can dream can’t she!?).
I can go on and on about why I am looking forward to this school year but I’ll stop it there. I love my job, even on the bad days, and I look forward to journeying through a history of the world’s cultures. 2018-2019 HERE WE COME!!!!
Lady Fury
P.S. I launched a successful campaign last year to get the kids to call me “Lady Fury,” and I’m hoping to continue the badass nickname this year. 🙂
P.P.S. update! My school threw a new class on me…after week 2 but I’m not letting it affect me. I’m just doing my thing and allowing others to take the lead happily.
