Week One at Paxon went pretty smoothly. My attempt at being organized has held up so far; my desk looks organized and the various items on it seem to have been deliberately placed there rather than left there in a mad rush. After Monday, the routines, classes, and announcements all seemed very business-like, as though we were in the middle of the year and knew exactly what we were doing. I’m happy with my rooms, my courses, and I have no reason to be furious at any of my students or any of my coworkers. Yet.

I have successfully put my history notes online so that my students can download them and print them out, saving an awful lot of writing time in class. It’ll free up an extra ten to fifteen minutes per class to do something more productive and meaningful than copying notes from overheads. It’ll also save me from having to mess around with so many transparencies and projectors. Whatever saves time allows me to add depth to the course, and makes it more likely that I’ll get through all 42 chapters of the text before the AP exam.

I don’t have a room this year, but since this is the first time I’ve gone back to being a traveling teacher, I have an easier time seeing the advantages. During my planning period I know exactly where I’m going (i.e., my desk in my office, right next to my air conditioner, praise God) and I don’t have to worry about anyone else being there. When I had my own room, I had to leave during planning and never knew where I’d end up. It was a crapshoot as far as productivity was concerned. Plus, not having a room makes it easier for me to disappear when necessary. Like a ninja.

On Friday, after the completion of a pretty smooth first week back at school, I went out with a bunch of my coworkers for milk and cookies. I had to follow someone because my sense of Jacksonville’s layout is messed up; someone says “south on Roosevelt Boulevard,” and I think, “No, it’s Roosevelt Road and it runs west out past Geneva.”

Anyhow, the greeters at the bar let our biology teacher bring in her exceptionally large, rectangular towel-covered “purse” with the sound of kittens mewing coming from inside. Good times were had, coursework and students were discussed, and malicious rumors were spread all around. I had my usual one drink and waited for everyone else to get sloppier and sloppier and make fools of themselves. It didn’t work; no one had too much, everyone remained as civil as could be expected.

Check that, no one in our party had too much. However, a lady at a nearby table kept making a nuisance of herself. She saw the Paxon logo on someone’s shirt and started circling our table like a vulture, asking what grade we taught, whether anybody had had Student X or either of Student X’s siblings. She also advised us to keep “rockin’ and rollin’” because it was a good school. This went on for about two hours.

Turns out that she had been a sorority sister of Student X’s mother, reminded us of that fact incessantly, and had a silver Tri-Delta lapel pin to prove it. I know Student X’s mother, and can see her in a sorority (especially that sorority), but I’d like to think she’d disavow any association with this yammering sot. I hate when people get drunk and fail to provide me with any potentially useful extortion material, and this lady was doing just that. Worse, no one sitting at her own table was in any hurry to take her aside and say, “Shut up, you drunken hag.” I guess we did them a favor.

Here’s hoping the rest of the year will go as well, minus the drunken, blithering magpie.

6 Responses to “First week back.”

1. blueroses Says:
   August 16th, 2006 at 4:15 PM

I don’t have any of your classes this year (unfortunately my request for AP Government couldn’t seem to fit), albeit I’m sure I’ll be dashing in-and-out, snapping photos for Newspaper and Yearbook. In the meantime, I might at least learn something historically catching via this blog– APUSH-Teacher X didn’t seem do as well.
Enjoy the year.

1. HottBlondeinVsClass Says:
   August 20th, 2006 at 9:21 PM

This nifty lil’ site caught my eye and i found myself laughing. Oh and i have blonde hair and am in ur class so see if you can spot me using your keen intelligence!

1. VDV Says:
   August 22nd, 2006 at 7:25 PM

Why should I bother? You can’t spell “hot,” “your,” or successfully capitalize the word “I.” Go study.

1. chrisgknockoff Says:
   August 23rd, 2006 at 3:42 PM

Glad we haven’t ticked you off yet. May your “keen intelligence” lead you to uncovering my identity.

1. VDV Says:
   August 23rd, 2006 at 11:16 PM

It would, if your email address didn’t have your initials in it.

Do you people understand either the point or the value of anonymity? Seriously, there are some real sickos out there.

1. chrisgknockoff Says:
   August 24th, 2006 at 3:39 PM

Touche, Mr. V