Wrapping my second week.

Well, it seems like my responsibilities are expanding as quickly as the approaching winter (which is pretty quick).  I'm on my second week and I learned yesterday that I'm the fire marshal for the school and will be duly tasked to make signs, and choreograph the fire drill. Grand.  I'm thankful to have been on the firefighting team on the Ship a while ago, plus following general safety consciousness at the Power Plant.  All will come in handy with this duty.

Another duty I got saddled with is taking our senior to a city fourteen or so hours away so he can take his SAT at a certified facility. Ok, no biggie.

Yet another, and one considerably taskier, is to be the editor (in chief?) of the year book for the school. Phew.  They say it takes a lot of work.. but only for a month or two. I'll break out my camera more often now since I've got a "license to shoot". Yeah!

Earlier today I was requested to be the Standarized Test.. manager? Basically spearheading a way to do standardized testing here, and being the go-to person for all of that.  My major issue with picking this ball up is that I don't feel permanent enough..  at this point I expect to be here for this school year and then? Then.. is then.  Judging by how I FEEL right now, I want to come back to a place of people I already love.  Which isn't to say I'm pity-partying it up or any such nonsense. Just growing in my appreciation for constants and community. I love me some people.

So, besides these sundry hats that I've acquired, what do I do?  Teach! I'll bullet point for brevity.

• Fifth/Sixth Grade Science
• US Gov't to Jr/Sr (High School)
• Epistles to Jrs
• Economics (to two Jr students)

I teach all of these almost every day.

When we finish the construction at the school we'll have a computer room.. and I'll be teaching one or two computer classes. With the whelmingness I feel right now, I like to think that I won't be teaching that class so much as moderating it. (may it be so!)

There's extra curricular stuff as well, but I've largely passed on those "opportunities". Maybe I'll come back to those after I've got a handle on what's on my plate already.

Teaching actually, is hard on me. It is hard knowing that I'm not that great of a teacher and I feel like the kids deserve better. I've got bad habits, poor organization, poor methodology, confusing presentation, lax discipline.. are there any other things that could be added? At least I present course related information and give related homework assignments (which seem to duly challenge the students). That seems to be going for me. Grace upon grace (mainly from the students). Teaching to various learning styles seems like a dreamy aspiration for single-subject, multi-year'd, degree-related teachers.  I'm still on the survival track.

Sunday I've been helping lead the singing. That's been grand. I think once a month I'll be leading a group.. and I'm excited about that.  Hoping to bring some songs from Walt Harrah's site to sing. It'll take some teaching, but it's a teaching opportunity I'm looking forward to.

On this final note, I've been adding pictures (and occasional captions) to my flickr repository of photos. I hope to keep it cycling while I'm here, putting it to good use. They've some spectacular sunsets and the University is located on a hill overlooking the city to the southwest. Sorry I'm not including any photos in this post.. it's kinda long enough.  Thanks for the comments, it's great hearing from you!