What the Future Holds

Hello. To begin this I would like to tell you that I am going to try to post once a week from now on. Do I know what days I will be posting on? No. Am I even going to try and post on a certain day? No. For right now all I can say is that I will try to post once a week. I’m honestly going a little crazy right now and I think writing here may help me to go a little less crazy. There’s a lot going on and it would be nice to have an outlet of some sort.

In other news, I’m still at the job I don’t like. I haven’t found anywhere to go next year yet and honestly at this point I’m not sure if I’ll keep teaching. My mother and I were discussing other options last night including going to school to get my librarian certificate or getting my Oregon teaching certificate and moving down there. For now, I’m going to try to work at another school and see if it really is just this school that is causing teaching to be so unsuccessful for me and then go from there. Like I said though, as of right now I have no job for next year. I don’t know where I’m going to be or what I am going to be doing. I might be teaching somewhere or I might have to go back to subbing.

The weird thing is, this uncertainty isn’t really bothering me. Usually I would be freaking out because I would be so anxious about where I was going or what I was going to be doing. I mean, around this same time last year I was crying because I didn’t know where I was going to work and I was going to have to move far away to get a job. You’d think I be in much the same state now with my future in a similar state of instability but, I’m just not. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a different person now or if it’s simply because I’ve grown less worried about it. Either way I’m glad that I am taking this change and uncertainty a little easier than I have in the past.

I may have to move back in with my parents which isn’t something I really want to do. I can’t exactly have an apartment though if I don’t have a steady income and if I’m subbing who knows when I’ll be working and when I won’t. I’m hopeful that I will find a more permanent position so that way I can move into a different apartment and continue to live by myself. I like it a whole lot better than having to live at home. Also I don’t want to have to deal with moving my cat into my parent’s house with their 2 cats and 2 dogs. I just don’t think that would work out too well.

However all of that ends up I am still looking forward to summer. We’re in the final 6 weeks of school and I am more than ready for it to be over. I cannot wait until I get to walk out of this building forever on the last day of school. I have to start packing up the things that are mine in my room pretty soon so it can all go home with me. A lot of the stuff was just here when I got here so it will continue to stay here. Which is nice because it means I don’t have to move it. Then on June 16th I am done here. My students are pretty sad that I won’t be returning next year but I know they’ll make it through.

Then on June 30th I’ll move out of my apartment. We’re renting a U-Haul truck to take all of my stuff back. It will be so much simpler that way. We didn’t do that when we moved in and it took a long time and we had to coordinate like 3 people with trucks. It did not go super smoothly. Then after that who knows where I’ll end up. We just have to wait and see. I’m almost looking forward to what comes next. I think it will be interesting to see where I end up in the future and how this all shakes out in the end.

Anyway, until next time look forward to the one post a week resurrection of this blog and, as always, stay classy internet people.

Hello

Hi. I’m back. It’s been a while. How are you? I hope all of you have been having a good time.

Anyway, I don’t know how long this will last or how often I’ll post so don’t get too excited. This may be a long term thing or it may be a temporary thing. I honestly can’t tell you. I’m working now. I’m teaching high school English at a school but I am planning on moving to a different school next year. I don’t know which school yet as I am still applying for jobs. All of these things going on means that I will be relatively busy for the foreseeable future. Which, as you all know, means I will be writing less. Hopefully I can keep it up but I honestly don’t know.

In other news, I’m teaching. I have a permanent teaching job at a high school but, like I said, I am planning on moving to a different school next year. I don’t know where that will be but I know for certain that i will not be here next year. My last post can kind of give you a little insight into why I’m making this decision. This just isn’t the right fit for me and It isn’t working out well. In the interest of my own mental health I am going somewhere else. Hopefully where I end up will be a better fit for me.

Other than that I haven’t been doing anything too exciting. I mostly just hang out in my apartment and watch YouTube or Netflix. That’s another reason why I am leaving here next year. I will be moving back closer to home and to a bigger city so that will allow me to actually have things to do and reasons to leave my apartment. Also my best friend is graduating college this spring and moving back home so I will be able to hang out with her as well. It should be fun. I’m hoping the change will be an improvement and will do me some good.

Those changes are a long way off though. I have 14 more weeks left at work, not that I’m counting or anything, until the end of the year. I still have to find another job to go to. Even though there is a lot of uncertainty I’m really looking forward to this change. I’m more hopeful about this than I have been about a lot of the other changes in my life and I’m taking that as a good sign. I hope that’s the truth.

Well, that’s what’s been going on with me. Not much honestly. A lot of waiting around for things to happen and surviving in the interim. Hopefully I can keep surviving and get through all of this so I can move on to the next opportunity which will hopefully be a better place for me.

I hope you have all been good and I hope your lives have been going well. All of you deserve all the best. I hope that your week continues to be wonderful and I hope that we see each other again sooner rather than later. Anyway, until next time live your life to the fullest and, as always, stay classy internet people.

 

What I Didn’t Know

I want to quit my job.

I haven’t decided yet whether I want to quit this school and go to another or if i want to give up on the profession entirely and get some other sort of job.

Surprisingly this decision was not based off of any of the actions of my students. I knew going into this that kids are hard to deal with. They’re often disrespectful and energetic and they don’t always do what we ask them. I knew that. I expected that. I prepared for that.

What I didn’t know is that I would never be able to buy books or have a projector in my room because there was no money in the budget, even though the volleyball team just got new uniforms.

What I didn’t know is that I wouldn’t have any sort of text book or curriculum to go off of. I have to make copies of anything I want to use in my classes. Often I am making 100’s of copies each day just to prepare for one of my classes for a week and more often than not there is a huge line of teachers doing the exact same thing as I am because they too have no text books.

What I didn’t know was that there is no library here because they cannot afford it. There is no computer lab.  I cannot have my students do research for a project or type out responses for an in class activity because I just don’t have the resources. But when testing comes around I find out that there are plenty of computers for that.

What I didn’t know was that, even after having great reviews at my previous student teaching and long term substitute positions, I would have a meeting about 2 months into my job where the administration would tell me that my contract would not be renewed at the end of the year because I did not have a seating chart and entry and exit tickets everyday as had been suggested.

What I didn’t know is that 95% of the observations the administration conducts would be unplanned. I have had one planned observation and about 6 or 7 unplanned ones. Unfortunately the information they gather from the unplanned ones is the information they are using to decide my entire teaching future. Of course, those unplanned observations happened on days where my kids were crazy and I spent most of the time trying to control them or on days where I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. They never seem to happen on days where the same class is running smoothly.

What I didn’t know is that my students are not allowed to leave the classroom at all during class time. They cannot go to the bathroom or get materials for class. I had a student who finally wanted to complete a project in class after I had nagged him about his failing grade for weeks. I sent him to the library to get a computer simply ecstatic that he had chosen to finally complete an assignment. In the process of getting the computer the assistant principal berated him about being out of class and sent him back without a computer even though he had permission from me. This effectively crushed his desire to complete this assignment which remains missing to this day.

What I didn’t know is that after the computer incident I would receive an e mail from the assistant principal, also my evaluator, stating that I, under no circumstances, was to allow any students out of my class. When I asked what I was to do if, for example, a student needed a computer her response was that I would have to have another teacher step into my class so I could go downstairs to the library and get a computer for that student. Effectively wasting my time and the teacher’s time who was observing my classroom. Students were also not allowed to use the bathroom. The 3 minutes they had in between classes should be enough. I know I can’t pee in 3 minutes so I don’t know how they expect these students to do it.

What I didn’t know is that I would have 7 periods a day and teach 6 classes with 5 preps my first year with no curriculum, nothing from the previous teacher, and none of the books I had experience teaching. Apparently the state decided the students weren’t getting enough instructional time in core subjects so the school decided to add an extra period. Because that’s a great idea.

What I didn’t know is that when I asked for help with curriculum development as a first year teacher I would be told to “Just look at the standards” which they believed were curriculum.

What I didn’t know is that when I asked if my AP Language syllabus had been submitted for approval so that my class could get the college credit they deserved and take the AP test in the spring, I would be told that it was on the vice principal’s “back burner” because she had other things to deal with. When I informed the students that it had not been submitted yet and a student went to speak with the administration about this I received a phone call during class time where I was lectured by the vice principal while my class waited.  Eventually I just gave up arguing my view of things and started saying “ok” to whatever she was telling me. There was no point in expressing my view which was that the students should know because it could possibly effect their ability to take the test in the spring because she was not paying attention to anything I was saying.

What I didn’t know was that there was no point to sending any kid to the office because nothing would be done about any sort of discipline problem in an unsuccessful attempt at PBIS. They had a conference with an administrator where the kid said they wouldn’t do it again and that was taken as a solemn vow and the kid was rehabilitated. The problem a thing of the past. Which, in a surprising turn of events, wasn’t working at all.

What I didn’t know is that I would end up being in charge of ASB and Leadership because I had been in NHS in high school and that apparently made me qualified. Also the leadership class is a High School/Junior High split class. Which, in case you didn’t know would be any teacher’s worst nightmare. I deal with high school students all day and then I have to somehow figure out how to deal with way younger kids for an entire period. This period is at the end of the day and let me tell you, all any of us want to do is leave the school. They are hyper and insane and they are constantly putting each other in headlocks or jumping on each other or play fighting because apparently that’s acceptable. I spend so much time in leadership class discussing how they are not acting like leaders. Because of a teacher quitting early in the year there had to be a huge schedule change and I ended up with more JH students in my class than high school even though I am a high school teacher.

What I didn’t know is that when I politely asked the counselor to not put more junior high students in my class because it was becoming overwhelming that she would simply add the student I said no to, as a TA.

What I didn’t know is that eventually I would stop asking for help because ever time I did no one did anything to actually help me.

What I didn’t know is that instead of being sad at the end of the day when the bell rang I would be extremely excited because it meant that I would have 30 minutes of silence where I wouldn’t be dealing with angry administrators or loud children.

What I didn’t know is that I would want to quit before my first full year of teaching was over.

 

 

5 Myths About Teaching

First of all, hello, I am back. Who knows how long this will last since I am teaching now so I will most likely be fairly busy for pretty much the rest of my life. Anyway, I will try to write in here again but it will probably be very sporadic and infrequent. Trying is what counts though. At least that’s what I tell my students.

I thought I would start off my comeback with a post about teaching. Since I am now teaching full time and apparently you are supposed to write what you know so here I am writing what I know. Even though I haven’t taught for a terribly long time I have learned some things about teaching and let me just say some of the things that people have told me about teaching definitely are not true.

Myth #1: You will absolutely love teaching all of the time.

Real Facts: I am pretty sure it’s impossible to love something all of the time, unless that things is chocolate. Also sometimes, teaching sucks. There are some mornings I wake up and I do not want to go to work under any circumstances. There are a lot of things that you have to deal with when you are a teacher and they are definitely not the most fun things that a person could have to do. Also sometimes your students aren’t that great and they make you crazy. On any given day I can think of at least 3 things I would rather be doing than working. But, I get up and the morning and show up everyday because I believe my kids and I know they can do better than they may be doing now. Some of them are actually pretty great when they aren’t in a bad mood.

Myth #2: All of your students will be wonderful kids who want to learn all the time.

Real Facts: Some students don’t care and that is really sad. It’s true though unfortunately. Some students don’t want to learn because they don’t like the material. In fact I had a student tell me the other day that she couldn’t look for the descriptions of character and setting in the story because she didn’t find anything worth highlighting because she didn’t like the story. Then she goes not to diss on your teaching ability or anything. I just looked at her and walked away because I wasn’t going to have that conversation with her. Sometimes my students say things or do things and I just have to walk away before I say something I will regret saying.

Myth #3: You won’t have favorite kids or a favorite class.

Real Facts: You will. The trick is not showing it.

Myth #4: You will have complete control over everything in your classroom all the time.

Real Facts: You won’t. The trick is not showing it.

Myth #5: You won’t miss the kids you didn’t like.

Real Facts: You’ll miss all of your kids. I have kids who drove me crazy at my last job but I wish I had them again. I’m sure I will miss all of the kids that drive me crazy this year too. Some kids I’m glad I don’t have to teach anymore but I miss them because of who they were as a person and the interesting things that talked about when they weren’t disrupting my class for the 8,000th time. I have kids from my last job who were terrible in my classroom but with whom I would have great conversations with at lunch or before or after school. For the most part kids are great it’s just sometimes they need to be reminded that they’re great. Some of them need to be reminded a little bit more than others.

Well there you go. My first post in about 4 months. Hopefully I will write more in the future. I think I’m past the point where I am drowning in things I need to do. That is until something else comes along and I need to do that too. Hopefully I can float along for a while and pretend I know what I am doing. We shall see.

Anyway, until next time good luck on your adventures and, as always, stay classy internet people.

A Conversation

Hello everyone. I’m still here. Less so than normal but I’m still here. I haven’t written for a month but I am still here.

I am afraid.

I have been trying to get a job for next year. A permanent teaching job for the whole school year. I applied and interviewed for a job at my dream school to work at. I didn’t get it. This means I have to look for something else. Unfortunately all the other jobs would require me to move. And move at least an hour away from my home. This scares me. This scares me a lot.

Now, I know what you’re thinking “that isn’t that far” and “didn’t you go to college like 2 and a half hours away from your house anyway?” and yes I get it. This is different though. This would mean moving away from everyone I know. Moving away from all my friends. “well just make new ones”. Yes, ok, you make a good point but in the teaching field there aren’t many people my age. Especially at the high school level which is what I teach. Most of the people who work there are my parents age which makes it hard to make friends because those people and I aren’t interested in the same things. It just doesn’t work out very well. Trust me I’ve tried.

“Ok then just go out and do things and make friends”. Excellent idea. You’re a genius. Here’s the thing, I don’t make that much money. Also I hate bars. I hate them a lot. They’re usually loud and packed with people. It seems that most people my age choose this place to hang out. The things I enjoy doing don’t usually involve situations where I would meet people. This is the reason I have no friends now besides the ones I went to school with or grew up with.

“Well fine then! Just stay in your apartment and waste away!”. I understand your frustration and this seems to be the standard response from most people I have this conversation with. I know why they’re frustrated, I’m frustrated with me too. If I wasn’t afraid this would all be so much easier. It would be great. Unfortunately that’s not my reality. This is. And I’m afraid.

Who knows what the future will hold. Everything is so uncertain. I suppose at this point it’s up to whatever cosmic force you want to believe in. Something is going to happen whether I like it or not. It might be good and it might be bad but at this point I think it’s better to leave it up to the universe and keep doing all I can on my end to make sure it’s a good thing.

Anyway, that’s where my head’s been at lately. My long term sub position is almost over and I am really glad that it is. I’ll miss my kids but the school I work at isn’t the best environment for me so I will be glad to be leaving it. Hopefully where I’m going proves to be a better fit. In the mean time send me your good thoughts and if you hear of a High School English teacher job opening in Washington or Oregon let me know.

Until next time I hope you have an amazing day, I hope to write again soon, and, as always, stay classy internet people.

Rambling

Hello everyone! I don’t really have a plan for this post. I’m sitting in a Starbucks doing some planning for this weeks lessons and I don’t really want to do anymore so I’m taking a break and writing this blog post.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. Everything seems to not go the way I want it to and this creates a lot of stress and other issues for me. I came home crying on Thursday night last week because we were behind on the yearbook. I felt like it was my fault even though it technically wasn’t, because that’s how my brain works. So that was a fun way to spend a Thursday night.

The teacher I am long term subbing for is apparently not coming back next year. My students keep asking me if I will take her job next year. The answer is no. I am not a CTE teacher and I don’t want to be one either. I don’t wan to do yearbook ever again. I mean it was a good experience and having 5 preps and managing it has made me feel nigh invincible but I don’t want to do this again. I cannot go through this for an entire year while also learning about how school works and figuring out my first year of teaching. I just don’t want to do it and I am not going to. I don’t have to put myself through this again.

I am applying for jobs at other places. I am finishing an application today that is for a job at my second place school. I am really hoping I get this job. Right now there aren’t any openings at the school I would really love to work at but the school I am applying to is really high up on my list as well so I’m excited. I was really happy when I found out they had a position open for next year. Wish me luck. I feel like such an adult applying for permanent teaching positions.

Other than that I haven’t been up to much. I mostly work and then come home and do more work. I am slowly becoming more and more caught up with my planning. I wish I had more help but I guess I just have to work with what I have. I am planning a hiking trip for either next weekend or the weekend after that. I am taking my cousin. I wish I was taking my best friend but she’s in Bellingham for at least another year. That’s what happens when you decide to double major.

My other plans involve attending concerts this summer and buying a new phone (hopefully soon since my current phone has decided to make the charge port quit working which is just great) since I am now making money at a relatively steady pace. I am hoping that Bayside will decide to do a tour this summer so I can finally fulfill my dream of seeing them live. We’ll see I suppose.

That was a lot of rambling. Hopefully you found at least parts of it interesting. Anyway, until next time have a wonderful week and, as always, stay classy internet people.

Kids Are Weird

Hello all! I figured I would make today’s post about some of the funny stories and things that have happened in my classroom since I started my long term sub position. I figure everyone could use a little bit of a laugh on this Tuesday morning. For us daylight savings time has started so it’s darker in the morning when I head off to work and it makes me exceptionally tired.

I have this one kid who is always drawing me things and giving me things that she makes in her floral class that she has before my class everyday. The other day she came into class and told me she had something for me which wasn’t unusual. She had drawn me an apple because apparently I had mentioned something about people giving apples to teachers and she had decided to give me a drawing of an apple instead of a real apple. I have no idea why she decided to do this but apparently it sounded like a good idea to her.

Another kid brought food into my class the other day. I let kids eat in my class but my rule is you can eat in here as long as I don’t ever see any garbage left on my desks or in my room. So far they’re doing pretty good so they get to eat in here. Anyway, she brought in these chicken wraps and she asked if I wanted one. I said sure and told her I was going to save it for lunch. I took it back to my desk and she then spent the whole period telling me she wanted me to eat it now so she could know what I thought of it. I told her I was saving it for lunch and she was like “ok then I’m going to come in here at lunch”. I told her ok. She was very concerned about what I thought of this chicken wrap.

I had two kids the other day play “tennis”. Apparently this is a game where two people hold hands and take turns slapping the back of each others hands as hard as they can until someone gives up. After I figured out what it was and told the two kids who were playing it that they were not going to continue playing this game in my classroom I asked them why anyone would want to do that voluntarily. They said because it was fun. I don’t understand how a game where you slap each other could be fun. That just sounds painful to me but then again I am no longer a teenager so I have a different brain chemistry than they do so that may account for our differing viewpoints. Apparently they started playing this game in middle school. I don’t know why.

I also have Sarah. Sarah is a drawing of a cat that has apparently been on my board since my first day at this school. One of my kids drew it and I didn’t notice for a while. Sarah has been on my board ever since. She has survived this long and the kids decided to name her Sarah. They keep saying that she is our class pet. She now has some bionic ears and eyes because someone in another class erased part of Sarah. The person who fixed Sarah decided that the parts of her body that are now red are her bionic robot parts. So Sarah is now a cat drawn on the board who has bionic parts. She’s quite fascinating to my other classes who don’t know who Sarah is.

There ya go. There are some stories about my crazy children. I swear weird stuff happens every day. For example a kid is currently yelling about Furby. Yup. That’s just one of the joys of being a teacher. Organized chaos.

Other than that I am surviving. So far I have managed to keep my head above water so that’s good.

Anyway, until next time hopefully this brightened your day and, as always, stay classy internet people.

P.S. Also I just want to say that thanks to a well timed Joywave post my music blog is having the best week of it’s tiny little life. Check it out at backgroundmixtape.wordpress.com if listening to me ramble on about music is a thing you would like to do.

 

Life Updates: Sickness

Hey guys! It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything and I apologize for that. This has not been a good couple of weeks and that has been one of the things that has kept me from writing. There’s been a lot going on and unfortunately most of it is not great.

Last week was a short week at school. I was sick, and by sick I  mean like nausea sick, on either Wednesday or Thursday I don’t remember the exact date. That really sucked and I was thankful that the week was only three days long. This was just after I had finally managed to get over my cold that I had been nursing for about two weeks so that made it even more exciting.

Anyway, after that disaster I was hoping that this week would be better. This week is a full week at school so I was hoping that maybe it would be better because it was longer somehow. Well, turns out I was dead wrong. On Wednesday I was sick again. And once again by sick I mean like nausea sick. Also apparently nausea is a word I have a hard time spelling correctly. Anyway, I was sick again and this time it was way worse than it was the week before.

I started feeling sick towards the end of fourth period and I should have gone home but being the stubborn and people pleasing person that I am I couldn’t bring myself to actually leave my job even though I felt terrible. This ended up not being the best idea because after my sixth period class let out I puked on the floor of my classroom.

Yeah. Let’s just let that sink in for a moment.

Yeah, that actually happened.

Thankfully there was only one student left in the room and it was the end of the day. Still that’s a great introduction to my first year teaching. Also I couldn’t miss Thursday because we had late night for yearbook and I had an interview in the morning. Thankfully I felt better enough to go to school on Thursday morning. I’m still not feeling 100% better but I’m getting there. My lesson from that experience was that I need to trust my instincts and go home if I feel that I need to go home.

My mother thinks I had food poisoning from the food I was eating for lunch. I ate something similar on both of the days I was sick so that could be it. I just thought it was odd that it happened on almost the same day each week. Who knows what’s wrong with me. It’s a mystery.

Anyway, other than that the interview I had to go to on Thursday morning was pointless. It was more of a formality since they obviously aren’t going to fire me from this job since I’ve been doing it for three weeks already. It was quite short and I was glad it was since I had to miss my prep time to go to the interview. After I was finished with it I got an email from the principal stating that I would have to do another interview at the district office. That should be great. I found that a little annoying since I had already done one interview and now have to go do another one but oh well. I’ll do what I have to do I guess.

That’s been my life these last couple of weeks. I hope yours has been better.

Anyway, until next time go do something fun this weekend or maybe just rest, you deserve it, and, as always, stay classy internet people.

Balancing

Hey you guys! I figured I would post in here before my long weekend since I am going to be busy for most of it. Thankfully most of the stuff I am going to be busy with will be fun and have nothing to do with work. Hallelujah. Anyway, as most of you should know I recently started a long term sub job. This has been going ok. I feel like I am starting to get my feet under me now that it’s my second week in and I kind of am starting to get a handle on what is going on. It’s still crazy and I am sometimes very frazzled and confused but I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it. Here’s to hoping this will actually help me find a job for the next school year like everyone keeps saying.

Anyway, I seem to be so focused on work lately that a lot of things have been neglected that shouldn’t be. Mostly I’m talking about me and my mental health. I have barely left my house to go anywhere but work for two weeks. I have books I started reading and never finished because I was swept up in this whirlwind of work. I have laundry piling up that prevents me from wearing slacks to work (I wore jeans the other day and I could feel a few of my college professors, who over stressed the point of looking highly professional every day, dying inside as I drove to work). I’ve been constantly stressed out over one thing or another which means I haven’t really had any down time for two weeks. This is crazy. It’s almost driven me to tears a few times which isn’t a good thing.

I honestly don’t know how full time teachers do it. I mean I suppose technically I am a full time teacher now but I am struggling. I suppose it gets easier after the first year because you know how it’s all going to go and what you need to teach and when you need to teach it and what copies and resources you need. Unfortunately this is only my first year, in fact not even my first year but my first time ever, having to come up with lessons for 5 classes each day that are all different. I also have 3 periods a day where I know next to nothing which requires a lot of extra research on my part. It’s tough to get through everything and still have my sanity by the end of the week. Plus some of my kids are less than great so that doesn’t make it any easier.

Hopefully this will all get easier in the future. I’m hoping it gets easier in the near future as well as in the distant one. For now I need to figure out some way to balance my life a little more. I need to stop leaving work, where I’ve been for 7 and a half hours, and coming home to work for another 4 or 5 hours. I understand that sometimes that has to happen and it’s part of teaching but it doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t have to, be every single day of my life. I know there’s a way to balance it all and I just have to figure it out. Once again I’m hoping I figure it out in the near future as well as in the distant one.

Anyway, until next time I hope you all have a lovely and wonderful day and, as always, stay classy internet people.

P.S. I really like the word frazzled. That’s definitely a good word.

Life Is Insane

Hey all! I just wanted to update you on everything since I haven’t been here in basically forever. I know what you’re all thinking, she creates this blogging schedule and then doesn’t even stick to it. And yeah, you’re all right. I suck. Sorry. I have a good reason though! The reason isn’t just that I am busy either, ok well it sort of has to do with that, but there’s more to it.

Here’s what’s up, I have a more permeant job. I am long term subbing for the rest of the semester. It’s exciting and scary all at the same time. I am excited because my kids are great and I will make a lot of money which will enable me to cease living with my parents and begin living with my best friend sooner than previously anticipated. I am scared because I am an English teacher and this job only has two English classes. I also have a yearbook class, a journalism class, and a photo journalism class. These are three areas where I literally have no idea what I am doing. By the way I am not using that literally incorrectly there. I literally have no idea what I am doing. I have never used the programs they use and I have never really learned how to properly use a camera. So yeah, it’s been an adventure so far to say the least. By the way if anyone out there who reads this happens to have some information about anything related to teaching yearbook, journalism, or photo journalism then please e mail me at blacksl1994@gmail.com. Seriously, help me if you can please.

Other than that I am adjusting to the sharp learning curve that is having to make up lessons everyday for five classes. So far it’s worked out because I can kind of just let yearbook and journalism run themselves and their good. It’s definitely hard to jump in in the middle of the semester and be told to just kind of go. I have had a ton of help though and hopefully I can get some more so I can get the other classes figured out. It’s going to be a long weekend of reading and learning for me.

As for the blog, this means there will be less posts. I am going to try to post at least once a week so I am not completely abandoning you like I have done in the past. I am so sorry for that by the way. I feel terrible. Here’s some stuff you can expect in the future, A Lazer Team review, updates about subbing, possibly some lesson plans or ideas, a book review relatively soon (once I finish the book), and some other stuff. Like I said I am going to try and keep writing in here at least once a week. I don’t want to promise anything because when I promise things I don’t usually end up keeping them and then I feel bad.

Anyway, I hope you all will continue to join me on this crazy adventure that seems to be my life now. I’m trying, really I am.

Until next time, have a wonderful weekend, a wonderful day, and, as always, stay classy internet people.

P.S. seriously though, if you know anything, and I mean anything at all, about teaching yearbook, journalism, or photo journalism ( or really just photography in general) please, please, please, e mail me at blacksl1994@gmail.com. I could use your help immensely.