Three weeks of school have flown by!

I can't believe that three weeks of school have already flown by!  So much has happened in the past three weeks, and it feels like we have been in class FOREVER!  I have moved up to 8th grade to teach Algebra, and so far, it has been....interesting.  I have 76 students, spread out in three hour and a half periods per day.  51 of those students are in my two Algebra classes, and the other 25 are in my 8th grade-level class.  I love my students, and once they learn that, yes, they really have to show their work algebraically, we are going to get along great.

I am also coaching the 8th grade A and B volleyball teams, which definitely keeps me busy!  I have 20 girls playing on the team and 1 great manager who has been a wonderful help to me at the games.  I also have the most wonderful team mom who has already showered the team with food and presents.  We had our first game on Thursday, and it was so awesome.  The kids played REALLY well, and I was so impressed with how far they have come since I first coached them last year in 7th grade.   I am so excited for the potential we have for this season!  Both the A and B teams won their games this week, but we quickly learned that our competition this year is going to be pretty tough.  One of the B team games went all the way to 30-28 in a nail-biting, heart-pumping game!  The A team games were amazing too, and I was so proud of my kids!  The games I am looking forward to the most are the ones at the end of the season in November, when I get to coach against one of my favorite coaching friends.  Last year, my B team beat hers, and her A team beat mine.  That game will be quite a showdown this year!  (That game is happening on October 30th, for anyone who wants to experience middle school volleyball at its finest! AND...I have the home court advantage this year.  Whoo!)

I can't believe that it is my fourth year of teaching.  I was told at some point that it would get easier, and in many ways it has, but there is still so much paperwork and politics involved that sometimes it can be overwhelming.  The teaching part is easy; it's the dealing with the parents and the system that is hard!  It seems like everyone always wants to tell me how I should be doing my job and to tell me they could do my job better than I am doing it.  Besides all of that, though, I still love what I do.  The kids make me smile everyday despite all their whining and craziness, and I love coaching volleyball and being a part of the success of the team.  The kids are full of smiles and happiness which I enjoy being a part of every day.

So, luckily, I am all caught up with work at school and have no papers to grade this weekend, so I will be spending the weekend cleaning my house and volunteering to help shelter evacuees in the gym at our school.  (Only if they actually show up....they may not make it out this far north!)  Hopefully it will rain a lot so I can have an excuse to snuggle up with a good book in my clean house and spend some time relaxing!