Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
It's happening. School starts again on Monday. I am at a new school in a new district, teaching new students and working with a new faculty. I have a new classroom, I'm teaching new books, and I'm actually working with new grades. Sophomores! Seniors! Freshmen! For the first time ever, I am teaching a 9th grade class. And this is after honors has been removed, so it'll be interesting! Honestly, I would not be as comfortable and confident as I am now without the help of some of my amazing new colleagues. Heck, I only learned I was teaching 9th grade English (known as English 1) at my school two days ago, and I got so much support. I'm of course nervous about how this year is going to go - I really want to do well - but I think it'll be a very good year, with a lot of opportunities for me to improve my classroom management skills, my approach to equity, and my development of consistent expectations, rules, and disciplinary strategies. It also feels good to