Snow Days, Evaluations and Festivities

At one point when I first began this whole crazy teaching thing, I wondered how on earth I was going to fill six one-hour periods a day, five days a week, ten months a year with valuble information. I had nightmares about facing my classes with nothing to say, no useful strategies, no guidance, no new techniques or concepts... not even any "helpful hints" or "fun facts".

Having reached the halfway point in the year, I actually feel as if I am starting to catch my stride.

Lately I have a much better picture, not only of what will be happening on a day-to-day basis, but of what I need to accomplish week-to-week and even month-to-month. It is a satisfying feeling to have even a rudimentary plan. I have a goal in mind for each of my nine classes and I have a good sense of the rhythm of the week and what I need to do in order to help them "get there".

This is the training that was sadly lacking in our Education Program- we made detailed lesson plans "up the ying-yang", as they say, but we never had a chance to map out a year's worth of learning. It's not an easy task! Juggling provincial curriculums and school expectations along with my own personal experience and of course, the interests of the students, I have had to create a program that compromises all of these elements equally. In music, the task is especially daunting, since the curriculum was written when music was allocated at least three times as many hours, and it specifically tells you how many classes to spend on each outcome.

Which brings us to today *sigh*.

I am unbelievably relieved and happy to be home celebrating the second "snow day" of the week. I got up early and started reading. Just reading for fun (imagine... something I have had very little time for lately!). Then I decided to check my e-mail and write on my blog. Oh, yes, I do have report cards to finish and more lesson plans to play with, but there is a tiny, imperceptible lessoning of pressure about it all.

So it came as a surprise to me that when I heard the cancellation announcement this morning, I was just a little bit upset. I know, I know... I've had a wonderful morning, and believe me, I plan on having a great day. It's just that I have so much I wanted to do with the kids. Not only that, but there are some things I actually need to do.

Now that I have developed this planning ahead skill, I can't get over the fact that time is just going to fly by. We have not only had two snow days this week, but over the last month we have been periodically interrupted by provincial evaluations, school planning days and celebrations of one kind and another. I realized this morning that I will not see my grade nine music class once again next week, since the provincial exams that were supposed to happen today will get pushed ahead. This means they can't present their projects until after March break. This is disastrous in at least two ways- firstly the poor students will have that hanging over their heads during break (which I vowed not to let happen) and secondly, I won't be able to mark it for their report cards, since the marks are due the Monday we're back.

I'm sure I'll figure something out, and don't worry, the next time there are rumours of a storm, I'll be the first to wear my pyjamas inside-out and sleep with a spoon under my pillow (or whatever it is that is supposed to bring on the storm), but I just had to comment on the change in attitude and direction I have noticed. I hope that means that I'm "getting the hang"!