The end... and the Beginning

Summer is over.

Well, for me, summer is about to end. I head back to the Bronx tomorrow, after spending the last couple of weeks at Little Sebego Lake in Gray, Maine. I am feeling the same I felt last year, when I moved out of Maine, which is, “What the hell am I leaving this for?”

Summer’s end at the lake is sort of anti-climactic. The lake is quiet, but there are some stragglers. Kids swimming… but most notably absent are the boats. In the heat of the summer, the lake is a veritable freeway of boats and tubes and water-skiers.

For homework class, please read “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White.

I am looking forward to the coming year with hope and some regret. The regret… is very simple. I miss Maine. I miss the “Way Life Should Be.”

I have hope, because I have learned so much last year, this year will be a better year. And not that last year was bad, not at all. I had relatively NO problems. That doesn’t mean that things couldn’t have gone smoother – they certainly could have.

Before the end of last year I started hand writing a “manifesto.” This “manifesto” basically contained the things I felt I needed to work on as a teacher. Things I want to work on to be more effective.

Of course I hand wrote it on paper so now I’ve lost it. I must have been doing something boring that would cause me to write by hand… but I forget what that was.

The thing I need to work on the most is classroom management.

Now, I’m not saying that my classroom was a madhouse. It was in control far more than not. I can’t say that for all the teachers. Again… I think the age comes into play. The people who had a hard time managing behaviors were the younger set.

The aspects of classroom management I need to work on were the more fine tuning areas. Things that enable the class run smoothly.

I believe I wrote that the Fellows program often gave the advice… “Don’t smile before Thanksgiving.” Meaning, put this front on until November and then ease into being nice and friendly. While going through the training I must have heard this a thousand times. I thought they didn’t want you smiling because you were going to be up against hardcore gangstas. They didn’t tell you that the kids were HILARIOUS. They disarmed me immediately. I wasn’t expecting that. I was going to disarm THEM with my humor. “Hoisted by my own petard” – to quote Shakespeare… or Gilligan, I forget who said it.

So I have to be stricter about that… I was too nice I think.

By the way… Did you know that Gilligan was his last name, and that his first name was Willie. Willie Gilligan. Look it up!