New job...
After a barrage of interviews, I have chosen a new teaching position! I got a lot of very positive feedback after each interview and was even told that I had all the qualifications anyone could hope for. I'm very thankful for all the excellent letters of recommendation from my supervisors and colleagues at The ACES and at Rio Salado.
I will be working for Tempe Accelerated High School as the 9th and 11th grade English teacher. I'm really looking forward to it! Instead of teaching six classes and planning for four, I'm teaching three and planning for two! I will also NOT be responsible for writing 14 IEPs per school year. School is in session Monday through Thursday, and Fridays are make up days for students who were absent or need to do some extra work. As a result, I'll be able to get all my grading done on Fridays! I'll be able to dedicate time to teacher paperwork (like lesson planning, grading papers, and curriculum development) rather than special education paperwork which is FAR more involved. I'm going to play it by ear at first to see if I'll be able to fill all my time, and if I can't, I'll ask for a special project.
In other news, my classroom is coming along well. I have a purple-toned island sunset mural on one wall -- painted by the teacher who used to be there who is now the registrar. The rest of the walls look REALLY shabby, but they'll be painting classrooms after the first week of school. I'll decorate and make my room as homey as possible in the meantime. I'm going to keep the mural since I don't have windows. It's not really in keeping with my forest theme, but I'll live. I'm told to plan for up to 38 students but that the classes thin out after awhile. We'll see what happens. My teacher cave is built, and the school actually has a working curriculum in case I'm not up to a redesign just yet. Courses are worth twice the credits, so everyone's schedule gets completely changed by January. This is the "block schedule" format so that students can get caught up or graduate early.
All the classrooms have smart-boards! I have an overhead projector, a document projector (so I don't ~have~ to make overheads), powerpoint, a SCREEN, and a new set of textbooks. They also have a grade book program that will weigh work by category so I can assign weight to exams than participation however I like. I plan to weigh everything that directly relates to state standards. It'll give students a good idea of how they're doing on the stuff they need to pass the high-stakes AIMS test.
Really, it's a dream job. I still get to work with some at-risk kiddos, but they won't have a thousand IEPs. It's not going to eat my life. I'll be teaching kids, and that's what makes me happy. I'll try to post updates, but sometimes I get so absorbed in working to find engaging activities for my students that I let my live journal go dark.
I will be working for Tempe Accelerated High School as the 9th and 11th grade English teacher. I'm really looking forward to it! Instead of teaching six classes and planning for four, I'm teaching three and planning for two! I will also NOT be responsible for writing 14 IEPs per school year. School is in session Monday through Thursday, and Fridays are make up days for students who were absent or need to do some extra work. As a result, I'll be able to get all my grading done on Fridays! I'll be able to dedicate time to teacher paperwork (like lesson planning, grading papers, and curriculum development) rather than special education paperwork which is FAR more involved. I'm going to play it by ear at first to see if I'll be able to fill all my time, and if I can't, I'll ask for a special project.
In other news, my classroom is coming along well. I have a purple-toned island sunset mural on one wall -- painted by the teacher who used to be there who is now the registrar. The rest of the walls look REALLY shabby, but they'll be painting classrooms after the first week of school. I'll decorate and make my room as homey as possible in the meantime. I'm going to keep the mural since I don't have windows. It's not really in keeping with my forest theme, but I'll live. I'm told to plan for up to 38 students but that the classes thin out after awhile. We'll see what happens. My teacher cave is built, and the school actually has a working curriculum in case I'm not up to a redesign just yet. Courses are worth twice the credits, so everyone's schedule gets completely changed by January. This is the "block schedule" format so that students can get caught up or graduate early.
All the classrooms have smart-boards! I have an overhead projector, a document projector (so I don't ~have~ to make overheads), powerpoint, a SCREEN, and a new set of textbooks. They also have a grade book program that will weigh work by category so I can assign weight to exams than participation however I like. I plan to weigh everything that directly relates to state standards. It'll give students a good idea of how they're doing on the stuff they need to pass the high-stakes AIMS test.
Really, it's a dream job. I still get to work with some at-risk kiddos, but they won't have a thousand IEPs. It's not going to eat my life. I'll be teaching kids, and that's what makes me happy. I'll try to post updates, but sometimes I get so absorbed in working to find engaging activities for my students that I let my live journal go dark.