I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

I'm back!!!
No I didn't forget about my blog. I just had writer's block. For about..... 5 months?? Haha :) No on all seriousness, I took off for Raleigh for Nikki's wedding and remember thinking I'll post about the wedding when I get back. And, I, uh, never did. I kept reading other people's blogs. Then it got to the point that I was like, well its been 2 1/2 months, why update now. I also thought that no one was reading, haha, so I was too lazy. Well over Christmas break I was told I have readers and to update!! So here goes:

First off, my job. So as you know I'm back at my old high school, Glenn, teaching US History and Civics and Economics, and I'm loving it. I really miss Southeast Raleigh (actually really really miss it and the students!) but I'm liking Glenn-- its a lot different. I have 2 totally new classes: US History and Civics and Economics. I've never taught either one so its been quite a challenge! I student-taught Civics and Economics in college so thankfully I had a lot of stuff to use. Plus I just love that part of Social Studies in general. It was my favorite Social Studies class (ELP!) and I watch the news religiously so I'm always up to date on the info in it. By the way its all about government and such in case you were wondering. I get to have great convos with the kids as I teach different concepts which is awesome. One of the classes is a seminar, so we've had a couple of seminars and debates. We get to just "talk" more in there about everything going on in the world. There's plenty of notes too, don't get my wrong! Now to US History. That's a different story. I know US History from being a history major, but I'll be the first to tell you I did not know it as in depth as I should have! I've had to teach myself everything in order to teach them. Thats been tough! Not to mention all the WSFCS merged their schedules from 1/2 schools having 7 periods to 1/2 schools having 4 periods. Now we have both block and yearlong. We have 7 periods but at least one of your classes takes 2 periods back to back and its over 1/2 way through the year. For me that class is US History. So one US is 1/2 year long and the other is all year long. Put that on top of not really knowing the content or ever teaching it before and you have quite the headache!! Thank goodness Nikki gave me ALL, and I do me ALL, of her US History stuff from teaching it the past 3 years. Without it I would have been absolutely lost! I have really good kids (lucked up with all honors first semester, wooohoo) so I haven't had many behavior problems and they can help teach themselves whenever I get lost or behind with these new classes!

Also, I got to know the students at Southeast over the past 3 years from teaching 6 classes of freshman each year. Coming into Glenn I only knew a few kids from my church or ones that are the younger sibs of my friends. That's another challenge of being "the newbie." I'm also getting to know my colleagues. Now I have quite the advantage when it comes to this, since I went to Glenn. Nearly all of my old teachers are still there, although many probably still can't believe that ME of all people is back there teaching along side them, muahaha.

For instance I saw Mrs. Carpenter (who is retired) the last day of school before Christmas break at the faculty Christmas breakfast. She almost choked on her pancake when I walked up and told her I was teaching at Glenn! Now you have to understand Mrs. Carpenter and my's relationship. I had her twice-- for French II and then Senior English. When I heard I had her I was scared out of my mind. I heard she meant business. And I guess you could say back in high school, I didn't mean business. Understatement? Perhaps. Well I ended up not only liking her class but liking her. I feel like she liked me too. That is until that one day........

We were playing a review game and I was up. We were alternating acting out and drawing our vocab word. Well guess what word I got. "Always" (or whatever it is in French, which I don't remember). So, I'm up in front of the class sweating. Think, think. You're up against another team and you gotta draw this so your team will guess it. What can you draw? Light bulb! Always, you know, feminine stuff. So I get to drawing. The class busts up laughing, but guess what-- they got my word :) Then Mrs. C walks in from the hall and looks around to see what all the laughter is about. Needless to say she didn't find the humor in it. She immediately stopped the game and reamed me in front of everyone about my "locker room" talk. From that point on I don't think I was necessarily her favorite student. Can't say that I blame her. I'd flip on a kid if they did that in my class now. My, my how times change. Well the next year I had her class for Senior English and all was forgotten. I credit that class with the reason I was able to go to college knowing how to write a paper. Not your standard 5 paragraph intro 3 body conclusion paragraph. What to write, how to write, how to make a solid thesis, you know-- a paper, paper. Which isn't something I can say for many of my college classmates! So yeah, when she saw I was teaching too she couldn't believe it. I think my mom still feels the same way....

Song(s) of the post: Syndicate and Absolute by The Fray. #1 and #2 on their new CD, aptly titled, The Fray. Real creative. But such good songs. Go check out them out!

Be back soon with more!! Promise!!