Out with the Old....In with the New

With the start of a new year, it is always a moment of reflection from what has happened in the past year, to what one wants to happen the next year. This past year has certainly been busy, and we don't anticipate any change in that anytime soon. The first half of the school year actually passed by rather quickly, and from my previous experience, the last half of the school year will pass by even more quickly. Since I haven't yet commented on my classes this year, I will just say that this year is a lot better than last year by far. The difference: 1 full year of experienc with junior high instead of high school under my belt, knowing what to expect from the school system, knowing my students better, knowing how issues will be addressed on the administration level, and the best reason of all, knowing what I am doing!!! As far as planning - I spend a lot less time because I already have something to base my plans off. Last year, I had to design, plan, carry out an entire year's curriculum (with very little resources) for 3 different classes. It wasn't an easy challenge, but one I met with decent success. This year I can just add to, delete from, or adapt those basic structure plans. I have improved my grading methods (and have a few less students this year), so I don't spend near as much time grading as I did last year. I don't spend much time writing tests, creating worksheets, or creating handouts because I mostly just use the same ones as last year. You would think with all of this saved time, I would have more time to myself to do the things that I enjoy. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Last year I was the assistant coach of the 5/6 grade basketball and volleyball team. This year, I have moved up to the assistant coach of the 7/8 basketball and volleyball team. What does this mean exactly? A little more money, but a whole lot more time. The seasons are longer periods of time and more games crammed into one week. Most weeks I have 3 games per week. I don't usually go home between school and games because of the long drive. Besides that is the only time I have to get my grading and everything else done. Sometimes I wonder why I became an English teacher. It really has a heavy paper load.

I'll just give a recap on our basketball season this year. Our 7th grade team finished their season with a record 12-10. We were 8-5 in conference and placed 4th in the regional brackets. We lost our first round game to St. Malachy. A 12-10 record may not seem like the best, but it is over 500 and is much better than that same team did last year as 6th graders when they only won 2 games out of the whole season. It's not a bad record considering we have 6 girls on the team (some of which have no previous experience with basektball). Our 8th grade team had an overall record of 15-8. 11-2 in Conference and placing as the number 1 seed in regional play. We lost the regional championship by 10 points against St. Malachy.

Out with the old: Basketball
In with the new: Volleyball
With the end of the basetkball season, I was granted one day off before we started volleyball practice. Our first volleyball game is this coming Tuesday and based on the practices we've had over Christmas break, we should have a decent season.

Out with the old: Bruce and I have officially paid off all student loan debt.
In with the new: We plan to save bunches of money and thicken our savings account.

I haven't thought too hard about some new years resolutions, but there is one in particular weighing over my head. I agreed to run a 1/2 marathon with Bruce sometime in April. For those who know me know that I hate running. There are so many things I would rather be doing with my time than run. However, I felt like this would be a good goal for me to set, and although 13 miles certainly seems daunting, I have faith in myself. It will also probably be a good thing for my body. The hardest part about this whole thing is....motivation. The second hardest is overcoming the "pain" of running. Ever since I had my appendix removed a little over 2 1/2 years ago, I can't run long distances without a significant amount of pain. It must be scar tissue or something.

Out with the old: Pain while running
In with the new: In shape, more respect for running, and less pain (hopefully!:))

Out with the old: I cleaned and organized my closet
In with the new: To make room for the new clothes I got for Christmas. (Thanks mom and Katie!)

If I think of anymore, I will post them later.