Tomorrow, I begin my ninth year of teaching English. I actually started working last week, but it never seems really until I'm eyeball to eyeball with students. Well, tomorrow it will be as real as it gets.
There are certain constants to the weekend before school starts. My "weekend" before doesn't always look identical to the previous years, but I do have certain traditions.
Back-to-School Traditions
* Cleaning out my closet. I am really hard on my clothes, so I really can only wear things for two years. Every year, the week before school starts, I go through my closet, getting rid of things that are ratty or don't fit. I have a strict policy on limiting how many clothes I keep that I may one day fit into. If I didn't, my closet would be out of control. I already have every size from 2 to 10. I got rid of all the 12's so that's something.
* Back-to-School Shopping. I am not much of a shopper, so I try to do as much shopping online as possible. This year I don't really know my size and I can't really afford the stores that I normally frequent online, so I will be going shopping today. Yesterday I did my yearly make-up run at Target. I don't wear make-up a lot, but I tend to during the first couple weeks. My make-up drawer would seriously distress most people (okay, all) I know, so this year I actually cleaned it out and organized it.
* Organizing my room and first week of lessons. Custodians tend to rearrange the furniture of classrooms after they clean them. This has never bothered me because I love rearranging my classroom. I try to make the room fit the students I have and my plans for the next couple weeks. My students will be working in pairs quite a bit so I have them sitting with a partner. The first week of lessons tend to be a little more difficult to arrange. I'm comfortable with the 2nd day on, but the first day is tricky. I really don't like to go over my rules or expectations (seriously, by 7th period the kids are DONE), but I don't really want to go over content either as kids will move classes a bunch.
* Sunday evening rituals. I have set up a certain list of rituals for the Sunday night before school starts in the vain hope that I will relax and sleep well. I rarely do sleep well, but I try. These activities include doing my nails, shaping my eyebrows, picking out my outfit for the next day, arranging my lunch, and taking an evening bath or shower. After nine years, these traditions have stayed pretty constant.
So in less than a day I will be facing students again. I'm pretty excited because I'm teaching two new subjects this year. I have a prep period again (I did not last year and it was quite exhausting), and one of my classes is a double period. All in all it will be a good year...I hope.
1 comment:
I read this blog only every once in a while, but I've got to say how incredible it is that you're going into year NUMBER NINE. The idea that one of us from '97 is truly a seasoned professional makes me feel quite proud. I hope things go well for you this year.
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