New Schedule

Sigh of giant relief. My last HCE class is over. I never have to teach that course again (knock on wood). It's not that I didn't like the students, they were interesting and it was an excellent way for me to get to know all the grade 8s and 9s, it's just that the curriculum was difficult to teach in a fun way without the use of a computer lab.

Oh, I didn't plan on talking about the computer lab situation, but I think I will. I think HCE is a course better designed for the kids to do research and present what they learned or do a little project. The problem is that the high school only has one computer lab. And during HCE, there was always an Information Technology class in there. So we didn't have that resource available. Which, in this day and age, makes things difficult. For instance, some of my kids have IEPs (Individual education plans) that say they are more successful if they can type they're work instead of hand write it (why they don't have their own lap top is another issue). Also, sometimes I want to use a Powerpoint presentation to "spice" things up. Well, the school does have a portable digital projector with lap top that I used quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm glad that class is over. Between egg baby fiascoes, teaching STDs, and other crazy stories, I had a huge learning curve from this class. I guess that's not such a bad thing, but that class was always the hump I had to get over everyday.

So now that I don't teach HCE anymore, I get an extra prep during that period. But I will be using that time to be a self appointed hall monitor (to earn some authoritarian points with the kids) and I will be used as a substitute teacher for absent teachers.

I've also gotten my tentative schedule for next year. It looks like I'll be teaching literacy, math 9, 10, and 11 (11 may be a half year 11, half year 12 class ... we'll see how the students will react to that) and then drama 12!!! I'm totally excited about that one! When I was planning on being a teacher in high school, I always wanted to be a math and drama teacher. But the community college I went to, didn't offer drama classes so I dropped the drama teacher bit. I took one drama class is university, and then I took a "how to teach drama class" last summer as part of my course work. And since the drama club has been quite a success this year, I'm being given a drama class.

I know there will be challenges with that one because I will most likely get students scheduled in that class who didn't want to take it. But I have all summer to think about what I'm going to do.