one week down, forty-ish to go.

I received an email on Friday that asked how the first week back at school went.

All I can come up with for an answer is that it has it gone as it always does. With me being woefully unprepared.

I am thoroughly unprepared to teach. I’ve spent about two weeks getting the computers in the place reformatted, reinstalled, upgraded, evaluated and moved around. I have set up Google apps for the staff and had trained everyone on it. I’ve assisted the less techno-savvy in getting it set up, which means everything from sending them the results of a Google search they could have easily done themselves to just sighing inwardly and setting up the whole damn thing for them. All of this is extra to my teaching contract, all done gratis, and of course, it has all taken me three times longer than I’d planned. Which means that I’ve spent zero time preparing anything even remotely resembling a lesson plan.

It’s a good thing I’m a pro at winging it. And I have a tone of stuff to show them first, programs and tricks that will make organization easier in other classes, like Evernote and  Google docs.

I am very glad to see the kids again; I’d forgotten what it was like to talk so much. My jaw ached and my throat was sore at the end of every day. Here’s hoping I get used to it again soon.

On the plus side this year is that I actually have a spare at the same time as the music teacher has the beginner strings class. He’s all for letting teachers sit in and take the class, and so are the principals, as it proves their point about learning being a lifelong thing. So other than the instrument rental fee, all it’s going to cost me to take music lessons is a few burned ambient cd’s. I picked up my instrument on Friday, and trust me when I say that bringing a full size cello home on the subway during Friday rush hour is a little nerve wracking.

Cello. I love saying the word. It’s all smooth and round and warm, like a stone you find at a beach’s waterline. I pulled my rental out of it’s case when I got home and ran my fingers along the wood, then ran the bow across the strings, feeling the vibration in the strings and through the wood. I only made a horrible screeching sound a few times, so there may be hope for me. It’s a little banged up (it is a rental instrument after all) but I love it anyway. Other than plinking away at the out of tune piano in the lodge where we spent our summers, this is the first musical instrument I have ever held. It’s more of a full sensory experience than I had thought it would be.

Anyway, that’s the first week. The computers are ready, the kids are ready, I’m not ready.

Situation normal, in other words.