Is it June yet?

So, here we are on day 38 (give or take...we lost track at one point) of my school year.  I got a wild hair last March, while sipping tea on a Sunday morning and browsing the Classified ads in the ABQ journal, to apply for a teaching position at a Charter School.  While I loved teaching kindergarten at my last school, which almost felt like a resort to me, particularly when the lunch ladies gave me some freebies here and there, and I actually had a view of the mountains from my huge picture windows, I couldn't help but be drawn to this opening for a multi age K/1 position.  With all the budget cuts and constant negativity I kept hearing last year, the advertisement appealed to me even more when it said "4 day work week".  "Wow", I thought.  "This could be good."

Things seemed great, after all, at this school there are no bells ringing.  Teachers do not have to do bus duty, since there are no busses.  As for the lunch ladies, well, there aren't any because there really is no cafeteria.  Nor is there a library.  Hmmmm....just what kind of school is this?  Well, I guess this is the meaning of "alternative education".  I am learning a lot as the year goes on.  Its sort of like driver's ed - you know, when you think you got the hang of it and you're driving along, then suddenly you either press the gas too hard and startle the instructor, or nearly hit the parked cars and wipe your brow and go, "that was a close one".  To put it in a nutshell, Ms. F, as I knew her, is having to learn how to drive all over again, meaning....I thought I was a good teacher.  No, I still think I am a good teacher but the way I'm teaching is so different than how I taught in a traditional public school.  I thought I had lots of stamina. I've made it through 3 sprint triathlons.  A sprint triathlon would probably be the equivalent of my entire am with my 23 students.  The pm would be more like a spin class, out of control at about 180 RPM's or more (those of you who spin can appreciate this!)  In other words, my heart rate is off the charts at this point in the day!

So, today I am starting my blog, in an effort to maintain what little sanity I have left at the end of a work day.  Also, I am prying myself away from the mountains of papers and lesson plans on my dining room table that I need to go tackle.  Hopefully, if I have some energy left after that, maybe I'll find respite at the pool, where I can swim about a mile while my mind races to keep up with the to-do list on the dining room table (which will still be sitting there when I get back!) and if I play my cards right, perhaps I'll only need to go to my classroom this weekend for 4 hours, instead of 6, to play catch up.

Is it June yet?