Start of a New Term!

Just about to finish up the first week of the new term. It has been a pretty busy and exhausting week. We have track A and B for each level which means that Danielle and I had to figure out how to teach track B as it is a little different than last term. In addition, I am teaching almost all new levels so I have been trying to figure out the differences and how to teach each level. It is also hard to remember everyone's names and train the students to do things the way you want them to.  I am teaching some more upper level courses which I am enjoying but they take a lot longer to prepare for so thats kinda a bummer. I have one class of elementary students in a lower level that is pretty much all boys and it is pretty frustrating trying to get them to focus but I am sure it will only get easier once I scare them a bit. I am teaching an iBT prep course which I taught for the first time last night and it was pretty intimidating. The kids are almost all in 9th grade and they seem so much older than that middle school kids. One of the students is about 6'4" and towers over me. They are also all super smart and I feel like I am going to need to step up m game to really make a difference in their test scores. Its also going to be a challenging class because it really isn't designed to be that fun. I imagine its pretty much the same as any test prep class which means that I am really going to have to work to make it fun.
It is always hard to tell if students like you or like your teaching but its been really nice this week because students that I had last term have come by my classroom to say hi during their breaks and tell me about their new classes. It has been great to get some confirmation that students did actually enjoy class with me! One student, who I have again this term, asked me to help her with a English competition. Of course she asked me on Friday and it was due on Tuesday. It was a Samsung the Power of Positive Thinking for Young Leaders competition and she was supposed to record a 3 minute speech on the power of positive thinking and send it in. I gave her my email and tried to get her to do it but of course over the weekend she lost interest. So even though she didn't do it I was really flattered that she asked me to help her. She is definitely one of the students that I have connected with the most and I am really happy that I have her in my class again this term.
It is finally getting warm here- we have had the longest spring ever. Hopefully soon we will be spending our weekends at the beach!