1 down, 36 to go

Well week one of the 2012-2013 school year is in the books. All in all it could have gone worse.

The first week of the school year for you non-teachers is all about pure survival. If you make it through without a complete mental break down it's a success. I did in fact make it through, and only a little worse for the wear.

One of the posative things about this school year is that in most of my classes I have students I have already had at least once before. This takes of the immediate stress of learning lots of names, and establishing yourself as "the teacher" in the first few days. As a very young looking 28 year old female, whose only 5'2" this has actually been pretty stressful for the past few years. In case you don't believe me there are still teachers in the building that mistake me for a student all the time. Whenever they tell me this they think it's funny, or that they are the first person to ever do it. It gets old pretty fast.

One big change I am going through is that for the first time ever since I start teaching I am not teaching any math classes. To some people this may sound great, but to me it's been difficult for 2 main reasons. The first is that I actually love teaching math. I mean I really love it. And not to "toot my own horn" but I'm pretty darn good at it. I've been trying to pick up some tutoring jobs on the side to keep this part of my life, and also to supplement my income a little. The second reason this has been a weird transition is that the math department at school are my closest friends and confidants at work. Once you don't teach the same classes as they do you start to lose a little of that close relationship. I already feel "left out" for lack of a better phrase. I guess it's just something I have to adjust too and create realistic expectations about. 

But what's great about this year is I have some amazing potential opportunities in front of me that I can't wait to take advantage of. I am in the middle of starting a new part of our robotics program at Greenville using VEX robotics. It is a new adventure for me that comes with a lot of stress. Failure is not an option. For me or for the district. Part of this new adventure is hosting a VEX regional at the high school. While I am not in charge of his effort (thank goodness) I am definitely going to play a big role in the organization of the event. I just want this program to offer an outlet to the students as a way to get introduced to engineering and robotics without the major stress and commitment of the FRC program.

On Friday night we had our first varsity football and game and the robotics team was there in full force fundraising like crazy. I had a bunch of new students come out and it was great to start to get to know them!