Preparing for My Caseload
For five years, when September began, I joined the throng of university students clamoring for the best prices on notebooks, highlighters and post-it bookmarks. I read through syllabi eagerly to find out what I was to learn, what textbooks I would need and how hard it would be. I got to know new teachers and learn new schedules – for both me and my children! It was hard, but still so exciting. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of a new school year. It even has great smells: freshly sharpened pencils, new crayons, and that bookish smell of notebooks just waiting to be written in. Even getting stuck in traffic behind a school bus isn’t annoying in September!
This year is different for me, a breath of fresh air. No classes of my own to attend this year, I’m finished with them! It feels great to be able to put into practice some of the things I’ve learned and not have to buy textbooks that I will probably never read again (just being honest!). It feels just grand to wake up, drop my kids off at school and head to ‘work’ like a normal adult! It feels so much better to just know my hours and responsibilities, and not have to get to know any new teachers or their expectations this year. Wow, I have arrived! *deep satisfied sigh*
Then as I prepare to meet a group of clients for the first time, I check my schedule and realize – Nothing Has Changed. I still have a schedule to learn, still have a list of resources and books I want to purchase, still have new people to meet. These new people I’m meeting this week are some of the best teachers I could ever hope to have. They are the dream team of professors I need to prepare me for my future. Their teaching methods are certainly unconventional, and so far, none of them have handed me a syllabus to let me know ahead of time what they plan to teach me. But learn I will, with their help. I will learn lots of music! I will learn how to be silly, I will learn to listen, I will learn to lead, and how to follow. I will learn so much more than I can even imagine right now from these new teachers over the next few months. I’ll be sure to listen closely and take good notes this year, for I have the very best teachers!
