Back to school!
School starts Monday. Today we had an inservice day after not being in the classroom for six weeks. It was supposed to be five weeks, but Covid shut us down and we had to go remote for a week before the break. This isn't a normal break for HIS. The school made several adaptations for this particular school year trying to work around Covid.
Late start to the school year trying to allow for people to get here through the quarantine regulations.
Extra long winter break in the hopes that it would allow many teaching staff to return home for the first time in several years. This was well planned and actually came to fruition.
Spring break is getting cut short to make up for a few of the days we started late and the long winter break.
Classes won't end until June 30.
Next year they hope to go back to a more traditional school calendar. It's a 180 day school year like every school in the states. It might mean my summer gets cut a bit short this year, but I'll make due.
Today was largely about reconnecting with the other staff. I was asked about my vacation adventures about thirty times. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I was the guy that would never return the question and ask about their trips. I was a selfish putz at times. This getting older thing is nice that it comes with wisdom, but the extra body aches thing sort of sucks. Ya know, that's a poor excuse. I can't blame age on being selfish. My choices. Trying to choose better. Writing about it helps.
First day back after so long off and I feel a bit wiped. Will still have to get in my classroom this weekend to get ready for next week, but that was expected. We have a new schedule and I'm now just getting my head wrapped around my new daily workload. We're moving from a seven period day over a week to a four period AB schedule over two weeks. Worth noting is my prep time. That's the percentage of time during my work day that I have to get ready for my classes. Right now it's about 25%. When I taught at Meridian it was about 17%. However there's a major difference in the school day. Here at HIS the work day is an hour longer. At Meridian I was out the door at 3:00pm if necessary. The earliest my day can be be here at HIS is 4:00pm.
Looking forward to hosting my second poker game tomorrow night. Brand new table will be used for the first time. Also have a ladies poker night in the works. That will be fun to host. I like dealing poker and I think I've got plenty of ladies that would like to learn in a socially friendly nonstress environment. We give what we have to offer. I've got love for poker and feel like I can share that with society.