Miracle

God visited me this week and it was miraculous.

On Monday, Matt and I went to my school to set up my classroom. It didn't go over well: the decorating was taking way too much time, and things weren't turning out the way I had imagined them in my head. Plus, I was cranky and didn't bring any snacks. We got home at 3pm and had lunch. At that point I was discouraged and planned to end my day right there, because "the day was ruined". According to my work schedule, I was supposed to start planning for my AP class. I was about to give that up and postpone everything to Tuesday, when for the heck of it, I opened the textbook to the table of contents "just to see what order I might want to teach the content".

That's when divine intervention started. From that point on, until Matt came home at 9 or 9:30pm I worked. It was as easy as breathing and ideas were coming at me more quickly than I could write them down. The curriculum order I had sketched just happened to fit perfectly into the school's academic calendar (trimesters, which is completely new to me and has lots of breaks). From there, God gave me great ideas for French club and when to have them. I've never experienced anything like this.

And to top it all off, the next day, Tuesday, I planned to write the audit that all AP teachers have to submit to the College Board. I've written one before for a different school, different calendar, and different textbook. I hoped it would be easier the second time around; last time took me weeks and put me in a great panic as I labored to document everything I was planning to teach and how I was going to reach all of the curriculum standards... Tuesday's audit came and went, and I took the bus home at 4:30! Amazing.

The rest of the week, I've slowed down quite a bit, partly because I'm running out of things I can do now and on my own. There are several parts of the puzzle that aren't in my control. For example, I'm waiting until next Friday to receive my new laptop (from the school) and learn all about the programs. On that same day, I scheduled with the tech people a lesson on how to use the Smartboard in my classroom. Then there's my French 2 class that is still a big mystery to me in terms of scheduling (what to teach when) because the teacher I'll be working with (or copying) is still at her beach house on the shore. And I'm sure she's not willing to come back to work with me before she absolutely has to. I wouldn't either. But I still have so many questions that our emails and phone calls haven't answered....

I know I'll get through it. I also know that there's only so much I can do now. Let's face it: most of the work will just have to happen on a daily basis for the next school day(s). It's impossible for me to know now how much time a particular topic will take, or how much practice students will need, and how I should assess their progress. I only see each class 4 out of 6 days, and so once I get a hang of that, then I'll know how to plan for each week.

I guess I've just justified a vacation :)