It’s been almost a month since I boarded a plane once again
cringing as I put my suitcases on the scale hoping and praying they would be
under 50 pounds. It’s been an adventure
once again. We had two meetings of
preparing for the next school year. I
was able to attend a great conference and listen to rich teaching of the
Word. After two weeks, the students
came. It was probably the most excited I
have been to return back to school. My
schedule is definitely crazy teaching four to five periods in a row every
day. I return home and put my feet up
because wearing flats all day is not the most comfortable footwear, but it is
what I have to do. I’ve already started
making a shopping list for whenever I go back to the states and some Dr.
Scholl’s inserts are first on the list.
I’ve enjoyed having the students back. I have one group that I taught last year and then three new groups. This year we decided to make a change to the curriculum and place Geometry before Algebra 2, which means instead of ninth grade taking Algebra 2 like before they are in Geometry and tenth grade having already taking Algebra 2 is also in Geometry. Since I teach all the groups of ninth and tenth grades, I teach pretty much the same lesson four times a day with a few differentiations based on the group I’m working with. It’s a lot of Geometry for sure, but I also have my once a week elective Personal Finance and my once a week advisory class, which is eleventh grade, so we are focusing on getting ready for the SAT.
Yesterday was definitely the craziest or most adventurous day I have had thus far. The day was just a really long day. I had the first two periods free and then moved into my marathon of five classes in a row. I was exhausted by the time I was walking down the stairs to go to my car. My roommate and I began our drive home weaving through the traffic that always seems to exist. Some parts are more open than others. In one such part, I was cruising in third gear when out of nowhere a car blew a stop sign and pulled out almost right in front of me. Immediately, I slammed on my brakes, but as the car got closer and closer I knew it was not going to be in time. I somehow managed to pull some race car driver move and swerved around the big SUV that thought it owned the road. After nearly missing by inches, I was a little in shock. My roommate was in the same condition since she would have been the one worse off had there been an accident. We made it home and were able to relax.
At around nine that night, my roommate came into my room and said, “I cut myself. I need you to look at it.” She said it very animated and then said along the lines of needing to put her hand above her heart to slow the bleeding and then when she did that, she started dripping blood all over the floor. She quickly ran into the bathroom, sat down on the floor, and put her hand over the sink. I looked at it, and at first it didn’t look very bad. She had cut her thumb while cutting a giant papaya. At first I thought it was just bleeding a lot because it was her finger, but then I looked at the other side of her thumb and saw she had actually cut through part of her nail and to the other side of her thumb making more sense to why she was bleeding so much. I temporarily wrapped her up with some gauze and we drove to the emergency room. We walked in and the security guard told us to take a seat. Nobody came to see us or ask anything although her hand was covered in blood. Finally a nurse came by and told us the doctor would come by when he could. When the doctor finally came, he didn’t even look at her and moved on. We were told by a family member of another person that had been there for four hours that since we weren’t major trauma it could be hours before we were seen. We decided to find someplace else. We left that emergency room and went to another one where we were seen right away. We were grateful we’d made the decision to leave the other one. She had two stitches put in and we finally left the hospital at around midnight. Five and half hours later, I was awake and getting ready for school. I’m tired, but happy that everything worked out amidst the madness.
It’s been an eventful start to the school year, but it’s going well. I’m enjoying working with my students, and just in the first two weeks I’m seeing them grow and learn. I even had another teacher tell me that a student had listed me as his favorite teacher. I also joined the school improvement committee, and I am the chair for the data analysis group. So many things are going on, and I’m very excited for the rest of the school year.
I’ve enjoyed having the students back. I have one group that I taught last year and then three new groups. This year we decided to make a change to the curriculum and place Geometry before Algebra 2, which means instead of ninth grade taking Algebra 2 like before they are in Geometry and tenth grade having already taking Algebra 2 is also in Geometry. Since I teach all the groups of ninth and tenth grades, I teach pretty much the same lesson four times a day with a few differentiations based on the group I’m working with. It’s a lot of Geometry for sure, but I also have my once a week elective Personal Finance and my once a week advisory class, which is eleventh grade, so we are focusing on getting ready for the SAT.
Yesterday was definitely the craziest or most adventurous day I have had thus far. The day was just a really long day. I had the first two periods free and then moved into my marathon of five classes in a row. I was exhausted by the time I was walking down the stairs to go to my car. My roommate and I began our drive home weaving through the traffic that always seems to exist. Some parts are more open than others. In one such part, I was cruising in third gear when out of nowhere a car blew a stop sign and pulled out almost right in front of me. Immediately, I slammed on my brakes, but as the car got closer and closer I knew it was not going to be in time. I somehow managed to pull some race car driver move and swerved around the big SUV that thought it owned the road. After nearly missing by inches, I was a little in shock. My roommate was in the same condition since she would have been the one worse off had there been an accident. We made it home and were able to relax.
At around nine that night, my roommate came into my room and said, “I cut myself. I need you to look at it.” She said it very animated and then said along the lines of needing to put her hand above her heart to slow the bleeding and then when she did that, she started dripping blood all over the floor. She quickly ran into the bathroom, sat down on the floor, and put her hand over the sink. I looked at it, and at first it didn’t look very bad. She had cut her thumb while cutting a giant papaya. At first I thought it was just bleeding a lot because it was her finger, but then I looked at the other side of her thumb and saw she had actually cut through part of her nail and to the other side of her thumb making more sense to why she was bleeding so much. I temporarily wrapped her up with some gauze and we drove to the emergency room. We walked in and the security guard told us to take a seat. Nobody came to see us or ask anything although her hand was covered in blood. Finally a nurse came by and told us the doctor would come by when he could. When the doctor finally came, he didn’t even look at her and moved on. We were told by a family member of another person that had been there for four hours that since we weren’t major trauma it could be hours before we were seen. We decided to find someplace else. We left that emergency room and went to another one where we were seen right away. We were grateful we’d made the decision to leave the other one. She had two stitches put in and we finally left the hospital at around midnight. Five and half hours later, I was awake and getting ready for school. I’m tired, but happy that everything worked out amidst the madness.
It’s been an eventful start to the school year, but it’s going well. I’m enjoying working with my students, and just in the first two weeks I’m seeing them grow and learn. I even had another teacher tell me that a student had listed me as his favorite teacher. I also joined the school improvement committee, and I am the chair for the data analysis group. So many things are going on, and I’m very excited for the rest of the school year.
