It's been almost two months since my last post. I've been up to my ears in assessments and progress monitoring and data entry and report generation and, occasionally, teaching kids some reading and math. I especially like the math. This is noteworthy for a humanities-focused art major, but it's true. I am tutoring a middle school girl in math (as well as English and history, but mostly math). I'm doing similar small group work with third-through-seventh graders in math, helping them with whatever lesson they're working on that day. My oldest daughter just started Algebra, so I've been helping her with her homework (and getting quite a review myself). And I've been doing a Testing Intervention in which I pull third-through-sixth graders for half hour test prep sessions in which we review math concepts a little and good test taking skills a lot. My head has been spinning from all the running around and all the different levels of my students! This intervention work is actually fascinating in a lot of ways, but I'm spread out over three part time jobs (while parenting and, lately, trying to help my husband get a house totally repaired for tenants!). It has been educational for me but it leaves me longing for my own classroom.
This brings me to the Employment News of the season (so far). I've been sort of offered an honest to goodness job for next year, teaching a 7th and 8th grade class at the little school where I've been doing Title 1 work. My only concern about accepting this position is the commute: 40 minutes on dry pavement (of which we get very little during the school year). But that's no deal breaker. I remember thinking about the older grades my teaching license covers when I was student teaching. I was really drawn to 6th, 7th, & 8th grades in theory, but of course have been staying flexible this year as I run all over the place working with all ages. The board of directors for the school in question extended the invitation this week, with the caveat that enrollment is not yet finalized and of course there's always budget stuff to wait on. I definitely responded in the affirmative! So I'm thinking a lot about the middle school age bracket, and have even allowed myself the luxury of imagining writing and social studies and scientific inquiry projects. I already know what the math will look like.
