I've had a few people who still actually read my blog tell me they've been looking for updates. Well, I've been planning to get back on the old blog, but this is the first time I've set aside the time to do it.
I'm sitting here in my living room, typing in between breaks while watching the Michigan - Notre Dame game. Last week's game wasn't televised here, but I guess this game is big enough to be the nationally covered one on ABC. A little piece of home...
I've been down here over a month now haven't I?
Really, I haven't had time to be lonely. I'll call home or call friends when I have some time, and I forget that they're 800 miles away. Aside from how hot it still is and the few really strong southern accents I run into every now and then, I forget sometimes that I live in North Carolina. I look around and realize it's different from Holland or Ann Arbor, but I have to take a minute to remind myself that it's halfway across the country.
A month down in North Carolina, two and a half weeks of school finished, and I haven't yet had that feeling like I've made some sort of horrible mistake. Then again, I didn't really have any other options, did I?
For the most part, I like it down here. The new Target and Best Buy are open, so lack of Meijer notwithstanding I've got all the comforts of home within reach. The people I work with at school are great - the administration and other teachers are the same sort of friendly and helpful people that made my student teaching at Saline so great. The students in my classes.... Well, it's getting better.
No matter where I would have ended up, everyone told me that this first year would be the hardest work I've ever done. Having never taught World History, I'm coming up with everything from scratch. Sure I've got a book and some resources, but that just gives me and idea of what I should teach. I have the basic calendar for the semester figured out - the entire history of Human civilization from Mesopotamia to the War on Terror in 18 weeks. But as far as how to teach it - that's the part that takes so many hours to figure out. Getting 14 year olds to pay attention to the history of something that happened 3000 years ago for 90 minutes at a time is almost impossible and I need to make it look easy.
My 4th hour has been the only one to really test me so far (knock on wood). It's all freshmen, right after lunch, and right before they go home. They're just squirrelly as all hell, and I have to constantly ride them about being on task in order to get through the hour. It's slowly and very incrementally getting better, so I just have to keep at it. I suppose it's reassuring that I hear across the school how everyone's 4th hour is like this, but it's still frustrating.
I've also uploaded here a few pictures of my apartment. After I got some money I was finally able to pick up a few things to make it more of a home - lamps, sheets, kitchen table, plants, etc. I still need a few things like DVD and CD storage, but those will have to wait until the next paycheck.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
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