School’s back, baby! We resumed classes Wednesday, 17 August 2022, a full sixteen days after the poor unfortunates in my county’s public schools resumed (they started back on Monday, 1 August 2022; while the school district has transitioned to a “semi-year-round schedule,” as they call it, it still seems borderline criminal to start school that early).
Just like last Friday’s post, I’m actually filing this one early; indeed, I’m writing it the day before school resumes. As such, I can’t comment on how this first, abbreviated week has gone, but I can give some insights into what we’re planning on doing, and how I’ve prepared for the start of this year.
Before that, though, I will note that this start of the school year is, perhaps, the most prepared I’ve ever been, at least in terms of planning out my lessons. All departments were charged with getting lesson plans done through the Friday before Labor Day, so I actually had to sit down and visualize everything beyond the first few days or the first week of school (I typically plan a week at a time, and make adjustments and tweaks as I go).
In doing so, I resolved to have quizzes, study guides, and readings for those opening weeks printed and copied before the first day of school. I did that, in part, because I am floating again this year, hopping between classrooms throughout the day. While my Music classes are in a fixed location—the Music Room—my History/Social Studies classes are all over the place. As such, I’ve been planting copies of course documents in the classrooms where those courses will be taught. I floated last year, but it was just to one other room (this year, I’ll float between two different rooms in two different buildings—three and three if you include my Music classes!). There were many days that saw me running to the copier first thing in the morning to try to get copies made in time for one class or another, so I know that this year, I want to avoid scrambling, especially jumping between three classrooms in total.
As for the first day of school—which is always a wash in terms of any real learning (but that’s not really the point of the first day), we’re back to the good old days of full school assemblies. We had a reprieve from piling everyone into the gym for Monday meetings and Thursday chapels during The Age of The Virus, but they’re coming back. Seeing as we’re starting with 412 students (that’s pretty big for our little private school; ten years ago, it had about 100 students!), the gym’s gonna be rockin’ during those meetings (and probably was Wednesday!).
So, hopefully my advanced planning and years of classroom experience have paid off, and I’m coasting into my first weekend. I can guarantee that by the time you read this post, I’m already exhausted—ha!
Happy Learning!
—TPP
The Portly Politico 
It never ceases to amaze us; first day of school in NY was always the day after Labor Day- the same for Lon in Maryland so these early starts always make us scratch our heads. It can’t be because of hurricanes – the South gets hurricane days like the North gets snow days. So what’s the deciding factor? Or is it simply a case of pulling a scrap of paper with a date on it out of a paper bag?
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I think it’s because we don’t have to go into the summer as frequently as Northern schools, because we don’t have tons of snow days (typically). It always blew my mind how schools up North would still be in session well into June. It probably also has something to do with our agricultural season down here, but I really don’t know.
There was a push when I was in high school to extend summer to Labor Day because young teen bodies were still needed to man the tourism industry in those days (I can only assume Third Worlders are doing those jobs now, though I still see lots of teens and college students working those jobs when I’m down in Myrtle Beach). It never went anywhere.
Personally, I think summer should extend from the Tuesday after Memorial Day through Labor Day—three solid months of glorious freedom.
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Maybe keep the kids in boarding schools for your 3 solid months of freedom?! 🙂
I remember saying to Tina ages ago that if we’d had a child together, we should put him/her into boarding school from the age of 11 and leave him/her there for 7 years! As you can imagine, Tina wasn’t impressed with that suggestion! 🙂
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HA! Yes, I don’t think Tina would take too kindly to that. We do have some students who go off to boarding school after the ninth or tenth grade, though not as many as we used to have. My little school has grown a great deal in the past ten years, and we’re not just “old money” anymore.
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Clever. I hadn’t thought of growing seasons or tourism demands.
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That’s my best guess, anyway. Most of our modern school calendar dates back to when the country was mostly agrarian.
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Will read and comment in a second. Just finishing an article/open letter for TCW.
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I hope you enjoyed your first day back, mate. I imagine it’s a busy time, with new arrivals and such?
Don’t work yourself too hard – you’ve got music and a lady to consider! 🙂
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It’s been a good first week, thanks. It’s always pretty crazy the first week, but it’s been fairly smooth so far.
Don’t worry—I went down to see my lady after the first day! I didn’t schedule any lessons, so I left after work and met her as she was getting off work. I came with a big bag of Chinese food, which we enjoyed after I replaced her windshield wiper blades. : D
Of course, after sleeping on her couch, I woke up at 4:30 AM Thursday to get ready for the drive back, and so I could go early to pick us up breakfast. That made for a long Thursday, but I loved being up and about that early—it’s like a whole different world.
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It is indeed.
By the way, have you roped Audre into joining us for the top 10 countdown? We’ve already bought one of the movies she recommended so she’s obviously onto something! I enjoy reading Audre on Neo and it’d be great to read some more of her pieces here too.
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She has been feeding me a steady stream of reviews, which I’ve been publishing on Wednesdays! They’re not part of the “countdown,” per se, though she is welcome to join in if she likes!
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