My New Digs

I love my new school.

If you know me even passingly well, you know what school system I just left (ahem, what cocoon of troubled, apathetic, and misguided confusion I emerged from, if you like).

The good:

--the building is big, clean, lets in tons of natural sunlight, doesn't feel like a cave, has a huge-ass gym and cafeteria, and plenty of fields for athletics and plenty of concrete for parking.

--the principle and his administration are helpful, friendly, organized, and streamline as much of the bullshit bureaucracy off my desk as possible...you know, so I can teach.

--my coworkers are smart-assed English nerds who keep offering to run copies for me, share files, stamp my textbooks, cover classes for me, and let me use their log-in passwords when mine won't work. They're laid back and fun to be around--and they've worked damned hard to make me feel like part of the crew. An awesome bunch who love students, enjoy teaching, and when the game clock starts, they start throwing down. And they drink beer.

--I get to teach with my AP English teacher from my own high school years(c/o '96! Woot, woot!) Joan's a hoot...a weirdo, scatterbrained, and brilliant. It'll be fun being her colleague and friend.

--I had 57 students (with their parental units) come to open house last night. Not impressive until you realize I teach all juniors and the open house was meant for freshmen. Emails, numbers, info, facial recognition, etc...all new to me!

--the kids are totally neat. Motivated? Hard working? Generous? Friendly? I had several kids, both Beta Club and not, help me this week doing odd jobs and lifting heavy things (I'm not a real man by any stretch of the term--if I cant get an eighty pound sweater-knitting eleven-year-old to carry in the groceries, you'll find me on the couch drinking a beer and telling her to "Get a move on! The rest of my six pack's gonna get warm!). They laugh my stupid, terrible, un-funny jokes, and asked me what reading selections they can get a head start on.

--Dude! The janitors actually let me walk up, take a hand-truck, and use it on my own terms, when I wanted to. AND they empty my trash each evening. AND they cleaned my white board.

--You know how some strange folks don't have to drive on the Atlanta metropolitan expressways to get to work? I just became one of 'em! Takes me 20 minutes with traffic to get to school. Again, if you know me, that's a change from 40 minutes without traffic.

Negatives?

--my log-in/password information doesn't work yet...overall, the technology coordination in my new county is about four years behind my old one. They haven't figure out how to distribute even twenty lap-tops to the teachers at the school, email and gradebook programs aren't up and running for many teachers, and the internet filtering policy actually blocks me from accessing my Yahoo and Hotmail email (along various and sundry university sites on Whitman, Poe, Plath, and Salinger). Those of you who are teachers here or elsewhere can, I'm sure, sympathize.


Regardless, teaching is what you make of it, much like the rest of life. So, rather than get caught up with all the green grass on my new side, I'm going to focus on stepping up my game, working harder, thinking more, and trying to kick more English ass than ever before.