Yes, I do... and I hope I won't regret it!
So I did accept the position - it seemed like a great opportunity - the summer off with the kids, plenty of time to prepare the courses, get a great tan, and did I mention having the summer off?
So here we are, I start in 22 days, so this technically would be Day -22. So really I'll be blogging the 202 days of my experience - and perhaps more if I feel the inherent need to post something once I am done with the final exams, done with the kids, done with the whole adventure... There was no inherent need to start planning and outline the courses 2 months ago, back when I had "ALL SUMMER" to do it. Here we are, August 1st...
I started the Biology planning today. I've handled the management of chemical plant automation projects worth over a million dollars, planned the timelines and strategies for developmental cancer drugs, wrote extensive documents pertaining to validation to meet FDA standards, surely planning a simple Grade 9 biology course is something I can handle.
Well, after spending all day with the biology book, the binder of notes left by the teacher (who just retired after teaching this for 32 YEARS by the way), here I am with a few things scribbled on a loose leaf I stole from my son. I have not used a loose leaf since 1996 when I finished engineering school. There simply has never been a need for it, and yet this morning I was scrambling for this basic tool so that I could "think on paper". I'm trying to be practical about things, I want to be a cool teacher the kids will love, maybe even have a few of the girls say that Biology is their favorite subject - but so far, there will be a test at the end of each chapter, and we will be covering several chapters per semester. Not to mention the lab reports. Is that crazy? I'll never really know - I'm my own boss for this stuff, it's all up to me - what to cover, what to leave out, how to make sure they understand and how to evaluate their efforts.
I'm signing the contract tomorrow - it will be the official piece of paper that says I'm a teacher (for the 2005-2006 school year). I've been trying to avoid thinking of the paycut this represents. Teachers are not paid much money here - or anywhere from what I understand. Whenever I think of this, I keep reminding myself of the 4-day workweek and all the days off at Christmas, spring break, Easter, etc...
Well, time to tidy up the house, get dinner ready, and step into my Mom function... the ultimate 24/7 job that pays absolutely nothing, costs more as the kids get older, can cause heart attacks and aches, is often the cause of lack of sleep, lack of sex, lack of personal time. It also happens to be my favorite job, go figure!
So here we are, I start in 22 days, so this technically would be Day -22. So really I'll be blogging the 202 days of my experience - and perhaps more if I feel the inherent need to post something once I am done with the final exams, done with the kids, done with the whole adventure... There was no inherent need to start planning and outline the courses 2 months ago, back when I had "ALL SUMMER" to do it. Here we are, August 1st...
I started the Biology planning today. I've handled the management of chemical plant automation projects worth over a million dollars, planned the timelines and strategies for developmental cancer drugs, wrote extensive documents pertaining to validation to meet FDA standards, surely planning a simple Grade 9 biology course is something I can handle.
Well, after spending all day with the biology book, the binder of notes left by the teacher (who just retired after teaching this for 32 YEARS by the way), here I am with a few things scribbled on a loose leaf I stole from my son. I have not used a loose leaf since 1996 when I finished engineering school. There simply has never been a need for it, and yet this morning I was scrambling for this basic tool so that I could "think on paper". I'm trying to be practical about things, I want to be a cool teacher the kids will love, maybe even have a few of the girls say that Biology is their favorite subject - but so far, there will be a test at the end of each chapter, and we will be covering several chapters per semester. Not to mention the lab reports. Is that crazy? I'll never really know - I'm my own boss for this stuff, it's all up to me - what to cover, what to leave out, how to make sure they understand and how to evaluate their efforts.
I'm signing the contract tomorrow - it will be the official piece of paper that says I'm a teacher (for the 2005-2006 school year). I've been trying to avoid thinking of the paycut this represents. Teachers are not paid much money here - or anywhere from what I understand. Whenever I think of this, I keep reminding myself of the 4-day workweek and all the days off at Christmas, spring break, Easter, etc...
Well, time to tidy up the house, get dinner ready, and step into my Mom function... the ultimate 24/7 job that pays absolutely nothing, costs more as the kids get older, can cause heart attacks and aches, is often the cause of lack of sleep, lack of sex, lack of personal time. It also happens to be my favorite job, go figure!
