If I Ruled the World

1) We would get one teacher work day every other week, and

2) Musicals would be available in trimmed-down 90-minutes versions for a flat rate for high schools.

My time's been split between meetings and time in my classroom.  Happily there's a lot more time in my classroom than I'm used to, and I'm getting a heck of a lot done.  For example, I completely redesigned and organized my filing system today, a project I've been wanting to finish for years now.  Yay!

Last night was Back to School night.  I had a decent turn-out - around 20 adults and students in each class.  The class sizes are all smaller this year across the board, thanks to the drop in student population.  The high school currently has an enrollment of 323.  My graduating class was around 800.  Weird.

I'm also finding it strange that I know about 65% of the students I have on my roster.  I take it as a good sign that they're signing up for my classes over and over.  It made Back to School night more comfortable too to look out a room filled with people I already know.  It also made it hard to fill the 10-minute presentation time, since they already knew all about me and my classroom expectations, etc.  I talked up the field trips and performances instead.

My principal shot down our first choice for this year's musical.  He said we had both built up a lot of respect and good reputation in the community, and this show wasn't worth the fight.  I see his points (it's why we ran the idea past him in the first place, we figured he would know best what people would freak out about), but even after a further hour's discussion Jesse and I haven't come up with any ideas that were as good a fit as that one.  I've got four possibilities in mind right now that I want to talk over with Rachel while I wait for the perusal materials to arrive.

We have safety training for most of the day tomorrow, but there should be enough time for me to run off the copies I need for the first few days.  It will be nice to get fully back in the swing of things.

One more day before school starts.  I'll be ready.