Em and Jeff's Adventures

The First Week of School

I love the first week of school!!

The first week of school in a new school, in a new city, in a new state has been a little overwhelming at times, but also incredible. Overall, the whole experience has been positive.

My first teaching move was to change my name. I have warped from standard Ms. Kemp into spectacular Madame Kemp (one of the perks of working in a French school). I only hope my teaching follows suit! I have also made a move from struggling students to students who are striving to get into Ivy League schools. Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little bit, but my teaching demographic has changed considerably.

I teach two periods of fifth grade with twenty-four students in each class. The kids are great. Their parents have been great. My staff is great. My principal is great. No complaints here.

I am faced with a challenge. There is no set curriculum, only standards, so I have an open-ended way to make sure students are covering the content they need to cover. When this stresses me out on an almost daily basis, Jeff reminds me this is exactly what I wanted. I am left sometimes wondering why. But only for a split second. I am free to dream up any sort of activity I like and implement it as long as I am covering the standards. Not a bad deal at all. I'm in the throes of planning a totally new and totally exciting language arts curriculum as well as beginning a unit I've designed (but never taught in full) on the American Colonies. If I could just find the time to squeeze in some health education...

On the home front, the moving truck has arrived. Or rather, the moving semi-trailer has parked itself in front of our house. I'm hoping the neighbors don't mind. But hey, as the locals keep reminding me, "It's Eugene!" Which I have taken to mean, anything goes. Literally. Women can go topless if they want to. I'm not kidding. It's in the by-laws. Not that I've seen anyone actually expressing this freedom, but it truly exists.

As of today, I've unloaded about a third of our stuff. Jeff did a fantastic job packing. He mangaged to fit our entire life (well, more of my entire life than his, but I've lived longer, so I've decided this is okay) into a 7 foot by 10 foot by 12 foot or so foot space. The downside is, I can't reach about two-thirds of our stuff. I've recruited my friend Kris Winter (who is fabulously tall) to help as well as the 21 year old son of one of my colleagues. People here are so friendly! I'm hoping to have the rest of the truck unpacked tomorrow. Or at least rearranged so it's down at an accessible level (for me).

It's back to the grindstone for me. It will be a miracle if I can get all of next week planned in this short little weekend. I'm at the point where I could really use more hours in the day or more days in the week. I can't decide which I'd get more use out of. One day I'll take a picture of the outside of the house...I promise.

posted by Tobias Arthur @ 11:59 PM