On Top of My Game

It's week three of school.  I just finished a 2.5 hour planning session, but now I am currently totally planned out up to next Friday.  That's 10 days from now.  Sure, I might have some minor changes to make before then, like coming up with a solid way to present the new lesson on finding the Least Common Denominator next Wednesday, but that's a week away - future Jonathan can deal with that.

I have my assessments written up to that point, I have my daily plan laid out up to Christmas, my grading system this year has been phenomenal, my students are starting to get the flow of my class down, they have been acing their exit slips, and homework turn in has been hovering at 50+%.  Not amazing, but a FAR CRY away from the ~0.1% I had at this point last year.

Today my Technical Elective classes started.  My students are stoked, as am I, to the potential of these classes.  There are no boundaries for the class, and we can literally discuss any topic that they want to in the class.  Since I have two, I'm going to have one that is focused on the Newspaper, and the other will be focused on the Yearbook.  I have pledged support from the administration in these areas, and I believe the necessary funding will come through to make them happen.  I'm so excited for these technical elective classes - they are such an unloaded burden from the State Standards based math classes - a true break in my day.  And the kids were SO excited to come in to my class today and get started, it truly was energizing.

Did I mention that I'm coaching the baseball team?  Three hours, every day after school until about the end of September.  Granted, the majority of the kids have never picked up a bat or ball before, but it's still been a lot of fun.  Sure, it's frustrating at times, but the best part about this frustration is that now when they get on my nerves, I just start them running.  It's somewhat gratifying.  Our first game is on Thursday, and we are definitely not ready.  Although to be fair, I think even if our first game was next March, I still don't think we'd be ready. Yes, we have that far to go.

And my credentialing?  It's done!  I have no classes during the week that I'm required to go to, no 1.5 hour drives across the bay Bridge to Oakland just to spend 3 hours sitting in a classroom before coming back to San Francisco, having wasted a good 5-6 hours of my night.  No worthless, mindless paperwork to write, regurgitating the most pointless drivel to fill up 30-40 pages of TPA goodness.  I am so glad that is done.

People keep asking my how this year compares to last.  Truly, there is NO comparison - they just aren't even in the same league.  This status is most definitely subject to change, but I'm really feeling on top of my game right now.