2. Getting Started

 #66Challenge

Walked the beach this Sunday morning as a way to get a grounded start to the new week. Things have gotten started, and I'm feeling great.

The return on Monday seemed weird somehow. I found myself feeling near tears at times, for absolutely no reason I could discern. Thankfully, it subsided and I've been fine ever since.

My mind has been quiet for the most part, and all the hours of training have just been washing over me. It wasn't until around 3 a.m. on Wednesday that I found myself getting up to make a list of things to do.

I live and die with lists, and hadn't made one at all until that moment!

I'm teaching a course called Global Perspectives and intensive reading course with a program called Read 180. The reading course concerned me, as the independent reading portion relies on learners answering questions for the books they read. That irritates me to no end, since that is NOT the way real readers read!  I don't take quizzes on the books I read. Why should they?

But, even though I know they have to do that, I also have started to figure out ways to include some real world reading. Funny thing is, when I talk to others on my team about it, they are thinking the same thing. I think that is what I like best so far -- a lot of us on the same page.

I have awesome teammates in these courses, one in particular who is a whiz at technology and has already set a lot of things up for us. There were concerns about how to grade within these courses, but we will figure that out. It seems that when someone starts getting freaked out about how something will happen, or when, I get calmer, and in turn calm them down. I came into this school year wanting to be more peaceful, more kind, more aware of the moment. And so far, so good. Seriously. It's been working so far.

Open House was fun. I got to see and hug so many returning students and talk highly about them to their parents. I felt like I was truly being myself, and even with returnees who may have been less than ideal last year, we were able to talk openly about it and set a new course. Incredibly cool!

The other thing to note is that there is a lot of emphasis on building a loving, kind, and empathetic community at our school, and I couldn't be happier. I already wanted to do that, and so I'm glad to know I won't be alone. There will be some school-wide lessons coming, and I have some productive ideas up my sleeve to implement. I hope to write about some of these in the coming days.

I know I'm in the glow of the new school year, and that's fine. I'm going to enjoy this feeling while it lasts!