Second year teacher...

It's been almost a year since I last blogged!!! Yikes. Time flies when you are having fun...or are too busy pulling your hair out by the roots and not sleeping. :) I have news - I am officially a MASTER! UNLV has deemed me a Master of Education and I proudly answer to that now, so please adjust your address books to reflect my exalted position. ahem.

The Clark County School District drives its new employees insane with ridiculous rules, tests, events and classes we have to attend. Now that I am a second-year teacher, I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the end still eludes me. Last year, during all of the crying (you remember the crying, don't you??), I decided there was NO WAY I was going to do to the stupid New Teacher Academy they "suggested" we all do. 45 more hours, along with full-time grad school, writing 20 IEP's, lesson planning, grading, blah blah blah, oh, and TEACHING full time. (I am tearing up just thinking about it...)

So I just said NO. I think there might have been an expletive or six involved, but I digress...

Now that I am a second-year teacher, I have been given the "opportunity" to do it again. While I am still overwhelmed and a little bit berserk, it's a raise, and as you know, we teachers don't exactly make the big bucks, soooo, I'm in the New Teacher Academy. (gag) It's a GIGANTIC waste of time, and tonight I got to start wasting time, I mean being enlightened and becoming a better molder of young minds. I am in a group of six 20-something first-year teachers who are with Teach for America. All of this to say, they are all fresh-faced, idealistic, enthusiastic young teachers and I felt like I was a thousand years old in this group tonight. One guy must have LITERALLY said the word "literally" 47 times. It was his favorite word! I kept glancing around to the rest of the group to see if any of them noticed how often he said it - they didn't seem to...

So, the second year of teaching is starting off much better than the first year did. There has been no crying, no panic attacks, no papers, classes or UNLV. Even though I am still overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid, in comparison to the H$#% I went through last year, this year is a piece of cake.

Oh, and not to toot my own horn, but I got a M.Ed with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Sadly, they don't write "Summa cum laude" on your Masters degree, so no one will ever know...but I wanted all of you to know! :)