My First Week

The first week of school is always busy and tiring. It's not just that my schedule shifts from writing full time to writing and teaching full time, but we also have to get the boys' schedule going again.

My classes are enormous.  The smallest has 27.  My freshmen English classes--the largest I've ever had--have 34 and 35 students.  Even my mythology classes are over 30.  Fortunately, all my sections are . . . nice.  Really!  I don't have any difficult sections.  The freshmen sections are chatty, mostly because they're so big, but the students are a really good group.

There are innumerable errands to run--forms, paperwork, people to track down.  All the computers were replaced over the summer, which meant I spent considerable time customizing the one in my room.

It's all stuff I've done before.  It's all routine.  Nothing new.  And I'm happy about that.  New policies, new implementations, new procedures all eat up time and create enormous amounts of work.  I do new things in my classroom, but when I'm ready for it.

Forward!

Sasha's First Week

Sasha also started school this week--high school.  It was nervous around here for everyone concerned.

Tuesday was a half day, and Wednesday after I got out of school myself, I dashed down to Willow Run High School to see if I could catch any of his teachers after the first full day so we could talk.

I found his math teacher in her room, very upset.  Her sixth hour class was, apparently, a group of monsters.  Guess when Sasha has her?  A couple other teachers were talking to her as well, and we gave her advice on handling the situation.  I also gave her Sasha's background and told her that his math skills aren't really up for algebra, but we're hoping to get him special education help soon.  She was supportive and willing to work with him.

I also caught his English teacher briefly--she was on her way out.  She hadn't taught English 9 for a few  years, and couldn't remember off the top of her head what they'd be reading that year beyond ROMEO AND JULIET and "The Most Dangerous Game."  I'll probably have to read most of Sasha's assignments aloud to him.

I missed his other teachers and tried again on other days, but still missed.  I'll probably have to make appointments.

He hasn't had any homework yet.  (I've already given out several assignments to my own students.)  He hasn't even gotten any books!  Sasha says this history class only has a classroom set of books because so many students haven't returned (and paid for) their books that the district doesn't have enough anymore.  I wonder if that's the case with all his classes.  It says quite a lot about the people who live in this district, unfortunately.

Perversely, I'm glad that things are working this way.  If Sasha were a regular kid, I'd ben looking to get him into a different school, but in this case, Willow Run will be a place where he can handle the curriculum.

It's weird, but I feel more in control now that Sasha's in high school.  When he was at middle school, I never entirely felt like I knew what was going on or how things really worked.  Here, I know the structure, I know the lingo, and I know the instructional methods.  I know what to expect.

Sasha seems to be handling things well so far, at any rate, though there hasn't been any major work yet.

Mars?

On my way home from work, Talk of the Nation on NPR ran this story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112752256

It's about the idea of making a human trip to Mars affordable by making it one way.  The speaker, Lawrence Krause, points out that going one way makes Mars viable because you don't have to worry about fuel for the return or about prolonged radiation exposure.  He's basically talking about colonizing.  We have the technology to do it.  It's just that all trips to space have been in terms of going out and coming back. No one talks about just going.

Krause said he didn't think many people would want to go on a one-way trip to Mars.  I was startled by that.  Really?  There'd be a bazillion people, both qualified and not, who'd sign up in a second!  And then Krause went on to say he's since encountered many, many people who wanted to go.

I started getting excited, and I was surprised at how excited I got.  I need to be clear--I really don't want to go to Mars.  Absolutely not.  But the idea of seeing a colony on Mars in my lifetime really jazzed me up.  No one's seriously talking about it except Krause, but this might be the paradigm shift we need to get one going.  I hadn't realized how excited I could get over an idea.