Week three of school has begun. By now, students have settled into their routines, and I as a teacher have stopped feeling as prepared as I was the first two weeks of school. Thursday is the AP kiddos’ first test over Gatsby, and I’m hoping some of them will be shocked – most grades taken in the beginning of the year are completion, so many with grades of 98% will see them drop to about 80%. I’m a little excited about that in a sick way; they should get a taste of the difficulty I’m hoping to throw their way. My class has been too easy thus far, and that annoys me.
The student council hosted the first blood drive of the school year Tuesday. Last week I signed up to give during my conference period, and then promptly forgot I signed up. As a seasoned donor, I am embarrassed to say that I showed up having eaten a breakfast of a banana and three cups of coffee. I got a little woozy as they started taking the vials at the end, and the team of phlebotomists descended upon me with cold compresses, juice, and barf bags. Thankfully only six of my students were giving blood to see this. They found a sub for the first few minutes of my third period (they wouldn’t let me leave until they were convinced I wouldn’t fall down the stairs), and I returned to a surprise in my class. My lovely American Lit students were reading their chosen novels quietly, and asked that we put off the lesson until today so they could keep reading – “After all, Mrs. H., we have so many people absent, we’ve already missed some of class, and you’re not feeling well.” With that persuasive argument, I agreed, and we had a lovely, relaxing period full of reading.
After school, another English teacher and I hosted the first “Second Tuesday” seminar. It was inspired by our hiring seminar in the spring, where students brought their resumes and learned about interview skills. The second Tuesday of every month we have the library reserved to deal with issues like hiring, college applications, and scholarships. Yesterday was our “how to go to college” hour aimed at current juniors. We had 27 students show up, which was thrilling to me. We talked about signing up for the SAT and ACT, what they should be planning to do this fall, and visiting colleges. I think it was a useful, if slightly overwhelming, meeting. I was asked if we could do one in the evening for the parents as well. Like many high schools, we only have two counselors for all the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and it’s difficult to work with kids individually when they have 750 under them. I’m excited we got the chance to help a few and answer their questions. Bribing them with goldfish and pretzels helped too, as well as emailing coaches so they could miss the beginning of practice…
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