Friday 09 January 2004

Mere words alone, Dear Reader, are insufficient to convey how relieved I am since last I wrote. The new year 2004 is indeed off to a good start!

Monday was my first day of classes. I have a total of ten students I see every day, plus five second-graders once every two weeks. (To say that the school is small is obviously an understatement.)

My eighth graders are Sierra, Lisa, Diana, and Kaitlyn. They're each doing independent study in Algebra I. I grade their papers as they're turned in and administer tests when the students are ready. In the meantime, I'm allowed whatever time I need to sit down with them to discuss their new material or areas in which they're having problems. It's a great situation and we really get a good chance to get to know one another.

My third graders are Maddy, Blake, Alex, Benjamin, Quinn, and Brigid. They work as a traditional grade school class, with me conducting daily lessons and leading a lot of in-class examples. My challenge here will be to keep challenging the brighter ones while bringing the slower ones up to speed. I'll find a way....

My second graders are Ramsey, Robert, Shaeli, and Angelika. I met them for the first time today, and have a half-hour session with them in the computer lab every other Friday. It's not a lot of time to get to do stuff, though, as at their age I was mainly trying to keep them on task today. Hopefully my future classtime will be more productive with them.

When I went in to work Tuesday morning I was told by Beth and Jody, the founders of the school, that they had heard wonderful things about me. It was nice to hear from administrators that I actually am a good teacher. Also this week I met with parents of five of my students. I was told by Kaitlyn's mom and dad today that Monday she'd told them it was the first day she really enjoyed school. This, too, is something I hadn't heard in a year; and still, even after all the crap I went through over my last six weeks at Holmen, that it's the students that matter... not the administration. Jody and Beth seem to realize this. What a pleasure it is to work for them!

Monday was also the day of my unemployment appeal. I had a phone conversation with a caseworker from the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and faxed him my documentation of why I was let go from my last two jobs. I must have done or said the right things, as in today's mail I was paid unemployment compensation dating back to when I filed. Finally! I was down to 21¢ to my name and getting ready to bite the bullet again. Now I have a little breathing room.

Today was a very good day.