Busy as a...

The summer is over. On Wednesday, my students will return to school. And BOY are there going to be quite a few of them.

As you probably know, high school teachers generally have a planning or work period during the day. Ideally, this is time when s/he can grade papers, plan lessons, run copies, call parents or just sit at the desk and take a breather. It's not like I can get everything done on my planning period, but it's an hour less I have to spend working at home or after school This year, I won't have a planning period. All grading, planning, calling, etc., will be done on my own time.

On top of this, I will be teaching eight classes. Our school is on block scheduling, but I'm going to be teaching 9th grade English. The freshmen will take English all year, but they will alternate between my class and a reading class; therefore; I'll have groups 1-4 on Monday, groups 5-8 on Tuesday, 1-4 again on Wednesday and so on. It's daunting enough to learn that many names (those of you who have had me as a teacher know how bad I am with names), but my biggest worry is getting everything graded, especially essays.

It's going to be a long year, and I don't feel remotely ready for it. I have in-service meetings tomorrow and Tuesday and an open house at school on Tuesday night (so much for celebrating my birthday). I'm yet to finish setting up my room, and I don't have the first lesson planned.

*sigh*

Okay, though complaining now. Going to go and get my clothes ready for tomorrow. Hope you all have had a great weekend!