A week and a half before school starts

So, I decided to write this blog because as I transition from teaching elementary school to teaching junior high, I have gotten lots of comments about how I must be crazy to teach junior high kids. I know that it's a tough age, and I don't have any illusions that this first year teaching junior high is going to be a piece of cake. I am excited, however, for several reasons. I am psyched to be able to focus on just one subject, and hopefully to get really good at teaching that one subject. I have always enjoyed Language Arts most of everything I teach, and it's exciting for me to be able to do that all day long. I love reading and good literature and I'm hoping that some part of my day will get to be sharing that love with my students.

I have to say I'm also looking forward to not teaching in the inner city this year. I actually live relatively close to my new school (about 15 minutes away) and I'm looking forward to that commute, as well. I'm hoping that the difficulty of this age of students will be combatted by the fact that these kids haven't grown up in the hood and won't be quite so needy. I loved my kids, but my last group especially has had a lot of special needs, more than I felt that I was able to effectively deal with.

I've decided to keep this blog so I can really chart how things are going and what I really think of this new move. I have a week and a half until I have to report to work, although it's not accurate to say that it's a week until school starts. School doesn't start until August 18th. I keep saying that I wish I could skip ahead to October when I know the routine, know my kids and have some time under my belt. If only things worked that way...