Never say never!

Summer is nearly over or at least the summer vacation and the start of school looms ahead. I’ve been to Louisville and Philadelphia and also visited the captured submarine at the museum in Chicago so I’ve had a good summer.
The worst day of school in my mind is the first day so I’m looking forward to day two. Day one is a morning of rah rah filled with skits, speeches, videos that seems to last forever followed by an afternoon of meetings. Day two and three are work days in the classroom that are actually productive. You have time to reconnect with peers, new students stop in as they take tours of their new schedules and make copies needed for that first day with students.
Next year brings several changes the largest being a division of the building between 9th and 10th grades. For the most part the 10th grade classes will be on the 2nd floor and the 9th grade classes on the 1st floor. Nearly 80% of teachers in the building had to move, the good news is that I was one of the lucky ones and am still in the same room I’ve been in for about the last 10 years. The bad news is that I had to give up teaching 9th grade Pre-AP classes which I’d just gotten certified to teach by taking the Oklahoma History certification test. This will be my second and last year having the same students for 9th grade Pre-AP and then in my 10th grade AP class. This year I’ll have two sections of AP, two sections of regular 10th grade U.S. History and one section of Integrated 10th grade U.S. History. Integrated is a combination of students from Special Ed. and low performing students that comes with an aid from Special Ed. to assist with the special needs students.
Another change will be that I’m serving as department head for the 10th grade history department, something that I said I’d never do. That just proves never say never! I was happy with the previous leadership but one of the constants of life is change . . . get used to it!
In spite of these changes I am again looking forward to the start of school. Getting back in the classroom after a good summer recharging my batteries is a good thing. There will be a number of new challenges but that will keep it interesting.