Monday, Aug. 30, 2004
First day of school, for teachers, 4th year, posted at 2:42 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today I began my 4th year as a high school English teacher. Seasoned, not weathered, I feel that nervous excitement right now in the pit of my stomach, even though I won't see my first student for eight days.It was great to see colleagues. Our department has 13 of 14 returning, and we all work together pretty well and, I think, genuinely enjoy each other's company. There's one new guy, an alum of the school, who seems pretty friendly and earnest and can run two miles in twelve minutes.
My new supervisor, who Seadragon met at my birthday, says he wants to maintain what we've had for the last two years. This is his third year at the school, and he's a friend of mine. I would never tell him this, but I have a vaguely fatherly sense of him. He's only 35 or so, I think, but has an heir of professionalism and supportiveness about him, tempered with a bit of sternness. Our last supervisor, who was excellent, was opposite in many ways; she was a warm and optimistic, without much in the way of sarcasm or cynicism. She really made us a great team. I think this new person will do the same in his own way. It makes me feel good to feel so hopeful about the start of the year.
We also have a new principal, and he couldn't be more different from the former one, at least so far. My first impression of him was generally positive. He said his piece to us, then left his assistant principals to finish the meeting, heading back down to his office. When he left, all the teachers go up as well to leave. This wasn't the right thing to do; he just had delegated the rest of the meeting to the Assistant Principals. I like this sort of delegation. It shows trust in people's ability to do a job. He says he's the same way with teachers. He calls himself a social conservative, whatever that means, but he elaborated to say that in this context, it means he believes in less governance and giving autonomy to teachers. I certainly cannot argue with that. I hope things go well with him. Rumors abound already, but he addressed them by saying, "I'm not an interim. If you hear other things, it's all politics. I intend to be here for a long time."
In other news, I do get a classroom this year. I don't have to float, which I had expected. People were telling me that this must mean that I'm a favored one, getting courses I like to teach and never having to float. This may very well be. I can't apologize for it. I think it's also just luck. Last year, four people floated. This year, just one. And she is fine with it, and also never has officially floated. She's drifted, which means she has her own classroom but has to teach in other rooms as well sometimes. I've never floated or drifted, though.
We got kicked out early from the building because of pesticide fumigation, and I promised myself I'd go home and do an hour's worth of work before going and waiting tables tonight, so I'm going to do that right now.