Back At Work Kids

i miss you lake tahoe!
well. all good things come to an end. no more summer days (daze?) running around with my oh so awesome children anymore. my butt's back at work! yup. survived my first, full week back at the high school. this year my assignments are ace! i'm teamed up with my 9-year co-teacher associate linda and i finally got honors biology. it's not that i'd ever complain but i've been taking it for the team for the past three years running. taking the harder than usual assignments. not because they're academically challenging per se (they are!) but because it's out of my comfort zone. okay. i guess that's why i also volunteered for them because complacency's 'bout a beeyatch! anyhoo after taking it for the team they gave me my dream schedule.
so here's my breakdown. on certain days-i'll call 'em red days-i'm teamed up with my homegirl and colleague, linda; on other days-i'll call 'em black days-i have my honors classes. i love my kids and i love this schedule. i'm still working my ass off though! especially at home just to keep from drowning from the grading and the logistical setup of everyday's class.
i think y'all would be surprised of what types of technologies are in today's classroom. gone are the days of the overhead projector and the water-based vis-à-vis markers for the sole purpose of writing on overheads. also gone are chalk. remember chalk? it's the accumulation of dead, waterborne protists and their shells composed of calcite and limestone. we have these lovely inventions called visualizers where it's an almost real time, colored (red, blue, green but that's the deal with our ocular nerves with those three it gives us the impression that we have a full spectrum palette) display of whatever hard copy texts, sheets, hell anything three dimensional really that can be manipulated digitally. we also have clicker technology. it's essentially a powerpoint presentation of testable materials where the students answer with a remote control. it gives me-the teacher-instantaneous feedback on who answered the questions correctly or incorrectly, assign a grade and generates a report of most statistically significant landmarks. it's awesome. i don't go home with the trademark tattooing of the stereotypical teacher.
didn't have much of a competitive campaign this year. am i disappointed? not really. i spent some pretty meaningful time with my kids and my family before the cataclysm called work started. damn. this work shtuff really eats into my: sleep, recreational, alone, book-reading, cycling, and family time. i'm with the french and their nationally mandated 35-hour work week. hhhrrmph.
i'm even wearing ties and stuff and non-pleated dockers. i'm still kinda stunned and it's still a hard pill to swallow this work thing. i'm getting paid pretty nicely (i think), and i'm no stranger to hard work (although i try to avoid it). my work ethic isn't incredible and i'll be the first to call in sick when my children are. i still believe teaching's my best gig ever. don't really see what i'd want to do other than this, yet.
well. there's always cyclocross. my license's still good until the 31st of december-my geburtstag!. most 'cross events still accept mountain bikes. so, i can salvage something competitive and then there's always moab in october...
a cold front's settled in currently. it's 38°F outside, 62° inside. i've started a fire kids. i'm watching the olympics while fiddlin' on the laptop. the american olympian kid taylor phinney's from around my parts. we actually raced in the same pack. he won a boat load of races even whooping up on us senior three men! good for him, he has truly a pedigree from cycling.