I'll post this e-mail from Travis.

Thomas Jefferson opened on time, but with much of the school partly finished
as Dan knows from my visit to use his computer and Riso. My room still has
bare walls since we cannot use staples and the special tape is not here. I
am missing shelves so things are in boxes. It is kind of a chaotic look that
is, hopefully, not too unsettling for the students and they can get the
sense that we are not running some small time operation.

A few days before school started, I learned that I have two reading
intervention classes. This is where much of my time and stress have been put
and come from. I was expecting 4 general ed LA and two intervention LA. I
include a lot of reading in my LA program, but to have a reading special
class is a whole other thing. Teaching reading is hard and I have not yet
done it so I do not have a groove for it. And that is my statement for the
first week of school: I just have not found the groove yet.

Perhaps it is because the school is new and there are many loose ends, or
the staff has not (in the new environment) found its family feel, or maybe
it is the two new reading classes.. I do not know. But what I do know is
that this was a rocky start. Two years ago, the second year with Dan, that
was the first time in my 7 years that I taught the same subject that I did
the year prior. That was a smooth year and my curriculum depth grew greatly
that year. I like that (see also creature of habit).

However, having said all that, I look forward to the change and challenge as
I know that I will be better for it by the year's end even if I cannot see
that now.

The building was built the way school's should be built. The clientle is
slightly better off than Gaiser's, but not so much so that I see what many
people warned me about. The parental involvement is greater (back to school
night was huge) and I look forward to what Curriculum Night (Tuesday) will
bring in numbers. I have not felt that any class or student or population is
any nicer or meaner than that that I expereinced at Gaiser. Kids are kids.
Perhaps the year will show me differently.

My new partner is cool. She has a personality that is easily with which to
work and I look forward to working more closely with her in the future. It
will take an initial year for us to get comfortable with each other, not to
mention the school-curriculum-grade, before we will really integrate. I
remember it being much the same way with Dan. She is new to 7th grade social
studies having come from 6th grade. She has taught for many years.