The Start is Near

School starts in a week. I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it or not.

I am, unexpectedly, enjoying preparing for this year. My classes are coming together. I’m getting the Digital Graphics class ready. I’ve updated the schools webpage.

My desire to coach basketball is diminishing. I really want to be a good teacher. I want to concentrate on teaching this year, but the struggle of finding time for both my class and basketball will continue. To most, it would seem not like a struggle. The class work would come first. However, basketball just eats time. Think about it: waiting for kids to be picked up after practice, practicing on weekend’s b/c you have to share the gym with everyone else, and the worst time eater – bus rides. When you are riding 40 minutes to play somewhere during winter, you can’t really grade papers. Actually, I have very few papers to grade because of what I teach. I have to be in my classroom to grade due the fact I teach digital graphics. Printing is expensive and the waste of paper is not something my liberal leanings can abide. Plus, part of me wants to return to school to earn my degree in Educational Leadership (educationese at its worst…it’s an Administration Degree). Basketball obstructs that desire because we play on so many different nights of the week.

Summer Slowdown

I would write more but July is the slow month for me. I don't have much to report. I did write all my lesson plans for Computer Literacy. I'm almost done with my Desktop Publishing class. I just got a book in that should help be do my digital graphics class the way i want to. The problem with that last class is that I have to realize anything I teach will be more than most high school students will get since it isn't taught at most schools.

A Tale of Two Trainings

I went to two trainings in the last two weeks. One was good; one made me die a little inside.

In my last post, I talked about how I was going to a computer training. I made a couple of predictions of how it would go. I was right. We spent 20 minutes on turning the computer on and off. We spent another 20 on how to make a favorite in IE. Now, if this training was filled with people like my mom, I wouldn't have complained. I would have offered to help. But this training was filled with people that have no excuse for they should be some sort of expert at using a computer. It makes me sick to think of how little their students know because of them. Again, there is no excuse. I have a friend who teaches social studies even though her major was English. She always complains that she is not good at Social Studies because it's not her major. Now, I'm not going to argue that she could teach English better because that is what she feels more comfortable. No, she's a teacher. Which means we can safely assume she can read and process information. Since the textbooks are written in English I'm doubly sure she can do this. But think about it, she's using her lack of training as an excuse for not doing a good job. Give me a break! If you are a teacher, shouldn't you be able to teach anything? And if the subject matter is difficult, shouldn't you be able to teach yourself? Ah...

Well, the second training I went to was on Senior Projects. We are a Senior Project High school. I came away actually inspired from this confrence. I realized that for all the faults my school has when we stack up again schools from all over the nation, we do pretty well. We just need to have more faculty involvement for Senior Project I feel. That will come.