It's been a long time since I've written in this blog. I'm in a very different place this year than I was last year. I have a more sustainable job and life at Dunwoody highschool. I'm teaching French 2 this semester and 1 and 3 next semester. It's like night and day from what I experienced last year at Hapeville. I have a third of the number of students (although I think this is abnormally low and we are on a block schedule so it's not an exact comparison to my previous count) and about an hour and a half less work time everyday. Some of this is unfortunately offset by the horrible commute home which often takes an hour. But overall there's no question that it's worth it.
The students are also very different and much better behaved. I'm finally getting to experience what teaching actually feels like and it's a pretty decent career when you are at a good place like Dunwoody. Students come to class, listen, and can't be on their phones all class like at Hapeville as we don't have any reception or Wi-Fi (even teachers which is sometimes frustrating). On one of my first days, one of my students waited for me to finish my sentence before sharpening his pencil. There were times when I was bringing something up on my computer in a moment of transition and the room would be just eerily silent. I knew very quickly this would be different from last year when I once had to grade students on their ability to watch a movie. While I'm a floating teacher and now have hall duty every day for 30 minutes, things are just so much better. One administrator actually came to my room early on and said, "wow, you are a floater, you have a homeroom on a different floor than where you teach, and you have third period (lunch time) planning, you get a gold star." The fact that an administrator would recognize something like that blew my mind.
So far I think I can keep doing the commute and get more into teaching French. It's a very different subject obviously than History and it's taking me time to figure out what the best way is to teach it.
In general the school is also much different than Hapeville. The environment feels positive, orderly, and organized. I've been amazed to learn about all of the things public schools, and especially one like Dunwoody which have some resources, can do. We have a fencing club, swim team, Jewish club, U.N. Club, entrepreneurship club, ping pong club, JV and varsity everything, and much much more. The student body is very diverse - something like 25% African American, 25% hispanic, and 50% white.
This is a big high school and I see a very tiny part of it. Besides playing tennis with some co-workers and attending a few social functions, I've got a lot more to learn there.
Some pictures from recent trips and happenings below.
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| Cousin Steve and Peg come for a nice Shabbas meal at our new house |
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| A reunion hike of some sorts at Acadia at the Beehive over Labor Day weekend |
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| Jose Gongalez comes to Atlanta |
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| Unit 3: Healthy Living - students work on their graphic organizers in class |
