Tales from the science classroom

After careful consideration of my life right now, I finally have a plan to deal with the stress of the added responsibilities I have taken on. Here are the realizations I've come to: Tuesdays and Thursdays are completely shot because we have conditioning until 4pm and in a couple of weeks we will be having games. So I need to just get used to the fact that Tuesdays and Thursdays are done until the end of October.  Monday and Wednesdays I am back here by 3:15pm and so could work some until 4ish. I should not do anything that takes a lot of mind work or thought because I am usually pretty tired by then, but I could do some mindless work and there is always mindless work.  Fridays are an absolute must in order to keep my head above water. I will have volleyball practice until 11 but I need to put some time in the classroom in the afternoons. No. Way. Around. It.  I have got to spend some time getting my files, both electronic and paper, in order. I just have to beca...

I have been completely stressed out as the new school year starts and I don't like it at all. I have fallen back into old patterns of not planning in advance and having to figure out what to do every morning. I spent much of the summer planning things and yet I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. On top of that, I volunteered to coach volleyball and that is taking up a whole lot of time that I didn't really count on. Plus, I am not using my weekends to my best advantage.  I spent 2 days this past weekend trying to figure out how to set up my planner. What??? Not a productive use of time. So as a result, I'm stressed out a bit. I have a to-do list a mile long and nothing is getting done on it. Of course, sitting during my prep writing this is probably not the most productive thing I could do, but I need to get it out. On top of everything, I still haven't figured out how to effectively organize my electronic stuff. This is really driving me crazy. I sti...

I vividly remember my interview for my teacher education program. One of the questions they asked is "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"  I responded, "in a classroom." At that time I had zero desire to be in admin and that has not changed. So here I am, starting my 10th year of teaching, and still in the classroom. This is also the hardest year to start. I am usually very excited about the new school year. I look forward to the new batch of students and I just enjoy new starts. This year? Not so much. Not sure exactly why, but it seems to be pretty prevalent across the board. Most teachers I speak to are just not excited about the new school year. Hmmm....  Oh well.....it is what it is. With that, my lesson planning is absolutely driving me crazy and I don't know what to do about it. I sat and made some detailed lesson plans for the beginning of the school year and they seem to change it day to day. Why? Why exactly do I do that? Why can I not stick ...