School's back in session!

The past 3 days have been a lively return to work.. Classrooms are somewhat thinned as some students didn't show back up yet. Some kids are doing the "crazy back in school" thing and driving the teachers batty. So are some of the coworkers.

My schedule should have been normal and pretty similar to what it was before winter break. Instead for the past 2 days one of my coworkers has been absent so my schedule got rapidly rearranged. Remember my job is taking students to different classes and then sticking around to give them support (keeping them on task, pointing them in the right direction, functioning as a walking, talking dictionary and sometimes textbook). Usually I have 1 or 2 students to help. Small brag here...some students seem to prefer my help and have started asking to sit by me or just move to where I am when the need arises. The past couple of days I have been walking back and forth across classrooms keeping 3 students on task. I should have been wearing my step meter because I think I walked about 2 miles doing the classroom management thing. Happily for me the students who would have moved to sit near me just walked up and asked for help while I was moving between the others. You know what? I actually liked being that busy. I felt productive and on top of things. My adrenalin was up and the students were doing just fine. If that is what teaching is going to be like I am going to find times that I am very happy doing the normal thing of helping students do what they should. Yep! Busy is good!

On the college front, I'm in the process of getting permissions for a required course. Because the program I'm in is a post-baccalaureate undergraduate program all my courses are normally undergraduate too. However, the one course I really need prior to student teaching only has one section at night and fills up so quickly that I've missed registering in it for the past two semesters. So I am trying to get all the signatures needed to allow me to take it at the graduate level. There are 3 people who have to sign this paperwork and so far I am 1 down and 2 to go. Normal registration closes on Sunday and late registration starts next Wednesday. So things are getting kind of tight. If worse comes to worse, I may have to take a couple of hours off to go get the signatures needed...especially since getting the dean's requires me to hand deliver the form. Sigh! Pray for me please!