I survived the first week.  We started on September 1, but I don't teach freshmen this year so I did not have any students until Tuesday.  For the second year in a row, I do not change rooms or have freshmen.  For the first time ever in my 15 year teaching career, I only have two preps.  Some colleagues might grumble at that, but I think I have certainly paid my dues over the years.  In those respects, the year has started off smoothly.

The rough part is that we are transitioning to Google Classroom.  I have been using my PBWorks religiously for years.  I like it.  It's easy for the students to navigate.  I have a homepage with the necessities, and you move on to the necessary page from there.  Google Classroom has no home page as such.  The items I have on my homepage end up having to be on each and every classroom's page.  A pain and a bit of overdoing it in my mind.  It is customizable and pretty as far as the images go, but for me, that just isn't enough.  We use it in class everyday and the kids are used to checking it already and it has only been a week.  I guess that is a good thing.

When I saw my rosters, it wasn't like last year.  Last year, I had a look at them and saw who I had and my heart skipped a beat.  I had so many kids I knew and liked.  Great work ethic kids, so-so work ethic kids who were a hoot, and kids I lobbied hard to take the class.  This year there were very few familiar faces.  I was not disappointed, but there was that question of what the dynamics of each period would be like with so many unknowns.  Well, what a bunch of kids.  I think the classes will be really cool.  I can already sense a unique class personality developing in each period.  They are clearly into the class and what we will be doing.  I am taking it slow - as usual - and I still see the glazed over eyes.  I keep forgetting this is a piece of cake for me but so damn foreign to them that I need to make sure I take it slower, but not to the point of sleep.  Today, we try our first photogram test strip.  Oh, the excitement.

I do miss the daily garden work.  Not only am I not there in the morning like usual, but we also have a massive rain deficit and the plants are starting to die off.  (They would be anyway with the colder nights, but it still stinks.)  I water with the rain barrels each day, but I can't water enough.  I also had an acquaintance over to pick something up and he wanted to see the gardens.  As I walked him around, I was aggravated with my shaded areas.  I need to do something with those spaces and avoid further garden humiliation.  He was polite, but the gardens were not as nice as when the weather is normal and not as nice and in bloom as they were in the middle of the summer.