Another year down

-

 This past year was a hot mess from the word go. I started off with a curriculum that I ended up not liking and so I switched horses mid-stream. That was a pain in the butt but it actually worked out okay. For the first time ever I got through to stoichiometry in chemistry. And not just to it, but we actually worked it for a bit. So that was good. I also used BCA (before, change, after) tables in teaching stoichiometry and that was amazing. Most students caught on immediately and could see what was happening. It was awesome. So BCA tables are here to stay. 

Otherwise, seriously, this year was a hot mess. I felt like I was playing catch-up all year. It did not feel like a full school year. I kept feeling like we had just started. Then, before I knew it, the end was here. So thank god that is over. 

Next year I get to start a new class, marine science. I'm excited about that. It will be something new and different and hopefully it will get me fired up about teaching again. 

I've realized this year that I have only a few more years left and then I can retire. That's exciting. I never thought I would be able to retire because I never planned for retirement. When I was younger I figured I had a long time to save for retirement, it was a long ways off. Then as I got older I realized that it wasn't that far off and I felt it was too late to do anything about it. The only reason I'll be able to do it is because of the Arizona retirement system that I had no choice but to join when I started here. That will provide me a fairly decent amount of money and then social security will provide me a decent amount. So I'll be all good. Not wealthy, but okay. Then I'm working on this side business and hopefully that will end up paying off. I hope to make a little money with it and to just keep busy with it. I don't want to go into retirement and then sit around and do nothing. I will need to keep busy. Hopefully this side business will make enough to pay the gym and help us travel a little bit. Anyway, that is still a few years down the line. I  need to get my student loans forgiven and that looks to be 4ish years. Plus, if I retire when I'm 70 that will give me a lot more money. Anyway, that's out there in the not too distant future. 

But know that retirement is out there, I'm not inclined to do much in terms of learning for school. I have the opportunity to take a class for free and I just don't want to. Why should I spend my time on something that I know will be ending soon? I just don't get it. I teach well enough to get me through the next few years. Do I really need to expend a lot of energy to improve it? Maybe that's not a good attitude, but I can't help thinking that way. I'm at the end. Why kill myself over it? 

Anyway. I'm spending this summer getting everything set up so that I can cruise through the next few years. I'm making binders for all my units so I have master copies of everything. I know the chemistry curriculum well enough now that I have a great idea of what I'm doing on a daily basis. The marine science will be new and different but I'll get that set up. I want to be able to go through this coming year in a non-stressful way. Not like last year. 

Okay, that's it in a nutshell. Time to stop looking at last year and look forward to a new year. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going in too many directions????

-
Image
I'm having trouble organizing my lessons. There are a number of technology things that go with my lessons. I am trying to use Planbookplus to create my lesson plans: Which is great but has its limitations. So I thought I would keep all of my files in One Note so I could have access anywhere. That will be good but it is almost like creating lesson plans all over again. Then I have a class blog where things need to be uploaded and offered to the kids. As a result of trying all three of these things, I have completed nothing. All of them are half done and we have just completed the 2nd full week of school. I tried an external hard drive and thought that would be a good way to do it. It has proven to be more of a nightmare than a help. Ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What to do???? How do I organize all the electronic information I have???? How do I keep track of things and not make myself crazy??????? So that is my struggle this weekend. I am going to complete one or tw...
Read more

And so it begins.........

-
Image
We teachers returned to school on July 24th and the students returned on August 2nd. That means we had the kids 2 days last week, Wednesday and Thursday. And it went well. This year I had to revamp my classroom management system and I think I have something that will work for me. Let me explain; My first 7 years of teaching was at private schools. Even though these private schools were at the lower financial end of the spectrum and most of our students were on financial aid, they were nevertheless private school students. Classroom management was not a huge priority as these students did their work and listened and were respectful and all that stuff. So my classroom management was a little lax because it didn't need to be really strict and tough. Well, now I'm at a public school. And in spite of the fact that this is a charter school and parents have to go out of their way to send their students here, it is still a public school. Last year I handled my classroom management l...
Read more

A stroke of genius?????

-
Image
The ongoing theme of this blog has been organization. I've been teaching for 9 years, but I haven't found a way to organize my stuff that works really, really well for me. Every single year, I struggle finding things I know I have or recreating the wheel because I've forgotten I have something. So I've been working really, really hard to get organized once and for all with a system that works for me. I know that I need to have things written/printed and at my fingertips in order to make good use of them. If I have to go online and look it up it won't happen. I've played around with binders and didn't really use them after I set them up. The last 2 years I did find great success with planners. I would divide the day up into my classes - 4 each day - and jot notes on what was to happen that day. That worked great!! As long as I planned ahead. Too many days I would get to school and the planner was blank. That left me scrambling to figure out what I'm t...
Read more