Today is my last real day of summer vacation. Tomorrow morning I need to be at school by 8:30am for a lead teacher meeting, after which I’ll sort through all the supplies and text books which (hopefully!) have arrived for the new school year.

As much as I enjoy teaching once I get started, I don't really look forward to starting the new school year. I enjoy being on my own schedule in the summer. I enjoy all the editing and writing that I have been doing, which can never be finished in a mere 2 months. I enjoy all the reading I have had time to do as well.

This is going to be a particularly busy school year too. I am teaching 5 different subjects, which means every day I will need to prepare 5 different lessons. And not simple stuff either:

• AP Calculus is switching from AB to BC, which means more material to prepare, and more difficult material as well;

• I am still nowhere near being totally proficient in AP Statistics, which means I need to review that every single day. Plus I want to “shore up” the course a bit in an attempt to improve the end-of-the-year AP scores slightly;

• Algebra 2 had a new textbook and curriculum last year, which I did not teach, so that will be an entirely new preparation every day;

• ESL is always confusing to teach since students arrive in that class from different countries at totally different levels of preparation. Last year I simultaneously had students in there learning pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, and Algebra 2. While I try to move some students into mainstream classes, that is not always possible when they arrive mid-year, as most of them do;

• Honors Algebra 2 had a new curriculum last year, which I did teach, so that is the only course which should not be overly time-consuming this year.

Two years ago when the teachers did not have a contract, I kept track of my “average” weekly working schedule, which came to approximately 51 hours per week. That’s a long work week, which does not bother me except I dislike going four months between now and Christmas vacation with no writing, minimal reading, and basically no free weekends.

It’s a good think that I really love teaching!