That's PROFESSOR H. to you, mister!

Ah, fall. Hurricane season, new school supplies, the smell of mold in the classroom...wait, isn't that supposed to be chalk?

To update:

Still teaching AP Psychology and World History. This year I am the only teacher teaching AP Psychology. There are three sections of the class, but apparently the guidance department (and by that I mean the Director of Guidance, to whom I will henceforth be referring as The Ass) is unfamiliar with the term "cap". I know, I know, many people don't like caps. Look at the NHL. They don't want salary caps (and frankly, with salaries like that, who can blame 'em???). But I am quite attached to class caps. Why, you might ask? Well, because class caps mean that you can only have a certain number of students in your classroom. For example, the state says that in core courses (required courses, like my World History class), the cap is 28 students. I have always been under the impression that in elective classes, the cap has been 30 (which is still a lot of students, especially when essay writing is a requirement of the course, but after this fall, I think I can get over that). Ask me how many students I have. Go ahead, ask.

In 2nd period: 32
In 3rd period: 34
In 5th period: 30 (my small class!!)

I feel a wee bit as if this were my punishment. When I heard last year that my colleague who taught AP Psych with me would be leaving teaching to take care of her three children (you GO girl!), I went to my department chair and asked that I not teach a course load that was entirely Psychology - I wanted to be a history teacher as well. He, being the cool guy that he is, said that was fine, he would tell guidance to hold the number of classes to 3. Someone forgot to mention the cap.

The Ass thinks I hate him.

Probably a good thing to think. I don't hate him, I hate the fact that the man is a moron, can't do his job, and doesn't like to say no. How difficult is that? "Hi, I'm little Billy Sue, and I'd like to sign up for AP Psychology." "I'm sorry, you can't, the course is full. You will have to wait until next year." How difficult is that? Did I mention that they were still trying to put children in my class on Thursday?

Oh boy.

However, they are all really great kids, and while I'm not too upset when they ask to leave (as one or two already have, bringing my numbers down to what I indicated above), I am sorry to see them go.

So, in addition to that, I have a student teacher for the first quarter. This is an interesting fellow, who will get a whole entry all to himself at some point in the future. Needless to say, I think that teaching is probably not the best choice for him, but we will see in the weeks ahead.

But wait, there's more.

I'm also teaching a graduate course at one of our (many) local universities: Social Studies Methods (basically, how to teach Social studies). How cool is that??? I am co-teaching with someone else who teaches in another school district in the area. He is awesome - he's a great teacher, he's very enthusiastic, and he's very good at what he does, and I'm really glad to have this opportunity. But (you knew there was a but, didn't you?) he and I have very different teaching styles. He's more a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants guy, and I'm more of a need-to-know-weeks-in-advance-what's-going-to-happen girl. In other words, he's much more laid back when it comes to planning, and I'm much more anal (OCD girl, comin' through!) In the end it will be awesome - we have 12 students, all of whom are working hard, and most of whom are in schools, either observing, teaching already, or some combination thereof. Plus, they are graduate students, so they do their homework. This, to me, is an amazing concept. Even my AP students don't do all their work all the time.

At any rate, you can see why I have been neglectful of the blog as of late. However, I'm hoping to be better about that, and at least give you weekly updates. I have made that my goal. Let's see if that actually happens.

For now, remember that the brain is the final frontier.