We started New Teacher Orientation today...it was not exciting at all. Why is it that no one seems able to design a training course that is actually interesting and useful. You know the Catch-22: if it's interesting, it's rarely useful and if it's useful, it's almost always dreadfully mind-numbing.
I now know how I will be evaluated (as required by the State of Texas) and I can't say that I have any questions about it after having spent almost 7 hours learning about the Performance Development Assessment System. Yay, PDAS!
So, side from the numbness that set in around 1:15 p.m. during training, today marks the start of my new career as a teacher (and the next year of getting up at 6 a.m.). Next week, my very first in-service and week after that...the First Day of School!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Training Day
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Insurance & Pay raises
Today I signed up for insurance. My school district's pretty generous because they supplement the teacher's health premium (pays the whole thing) but a lot of the teachers that were there today pointed out that it's really expensive if you have kids and are trying to cover them. Wow. I can't even begin to imagine that, the premium's pretty high for the teacher only, so I really feel for them. Me, I'm just glad to be insured for the first time in over 3 years.
On another front, the great state of Texas mandated a $2000 raise for all Texas teachers, which is fantastic news, and my district has proposed giving its teachers an additional raise of unknown proportions. I'm happy about that but I'm also a little unnerved because we won't know the pay schedule until the end of August or therebouts. I can't create a realistic budget without knowing how much I'm earning. This is the first job I've ever taken where I didn't know how much I was gonna be paid before my first day on the job. But everyone says that's just how it is so I guess I'll just budget low and deal.
So the time 'til teaching marches onward and I am finally growing nervous. My primary concern (heard as a moaning wail by friends and strangers alike) - what do I do with the kids the first week and will someone, at some point, tell me how to decide what to teach in the first six weeks? I'm assured that we'll learn some tips to handle the first week during new teacher orientation and that I'll have a mentor to help get me started, so I'm probably worrying unnessarily but still...I grow nervous and fidgetty just thinking about it. Such is the way of new teachers, right?
