Sunday, April 21, 2013

Next Year

Well, friends, I've been invited to teach again next year.

And, as usual, I am torn.  I am particularly torn because this has been a good year, and I adore my team.  Are there issues?  Yes.  Do I occasionally get angry enough or frustrated enough with the system to want to spit?  To want to kick puppies?  Absolutely.  (I have done neither, many thanks to Mick, who has heard -- and calmed -- many a rant.)  But I don't want to be a teacher forever.  I want to do the following: play a meaningful role in education policy.  Go to medical school.  Be a stay-at-home mom.  Use my law degree. 

(No, I have no idea how to do all of those at once.  I'm working on it.)

So, I am torn.

We had to build portfolios to document, in what turned out to be a somewhat defensive process, all that we do and why/how it makes us a good teacher. I'll write more about this another day.  Famous last words, I know, but I don't want that to hijack this post.  There's a lot to write about (not negative, either, which I am sure is a shocker!) and it's really more than I can put here.

In the meantime, get a load of this:




That's right, my friends.  Although I really don't want to live in Maine forever, we're here now, and I need to be proactive about taking the Maine bar exam.  These are the study books.  I have not yet applied -- that's coming -- but I did, at least, track down and purchase some books before the mad 3L rush for them.  Since the course is $2800, buying the books without the course is huge.  (BarBri in general is very expensive, but I would tell anyone in their third year of law school that they should consider it part of their tuition.  The discipline of the course and the pure "this is how it is, this is what you need to know" of it is brilliant.  But, having taken both a bar exam and a BarBri course in the past, all I need now is to carve out the time to study, and the books with which to do so.  I know what I'm in for; I know how to do it... I am at the point of just needing to actually do it. Don't take that the wrong way: I'm not saying it's easy.  I'm just saying it's not QUITE as scary as it was the first time.  Wish me luck.)

Ooooh ... Chopped "fan picks" is on right now and the Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter fans have been downright ruthless to the poor chefs competing!  I've got to go watch this mayhem. 

Stay tuned!

--Jen

p.s.  Spring Break is officially over, and school resumes tomorrow. I have done NOTHING related to work, including going through my work bag.  Good thing tomorrow's a review day AND this isn't my first rodeo!  But tomorrow's prep period?  That promises to be busy busy busy!


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