KIPP Planning

Last Friday was the kiddos last day at Summer by the Sea, and this week we are starting to plan for next year.  I've spent all day working on a Long Term Plan, which is KIPPish for a year-at-a-glance, for science.  It includes both TEKS and Texas College and Career Readiness Standards.  I definitely took it for granted that Richardson ISD had content specialists to put those together for all the teachers, but having to work through it myself has really helped me become more familiar with concepts I'll need to teach in fifth grade.

I have mixed feelings about the coming school year.   It was awesome getting to meet about half of my future students at Summer by the Sea, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again the first day of school, along with the others I've yet to meet.   I lucked out getting assigned my two favorite subjects- science and social studies.  I found out today that we have funding for classroom supplies, field trips, laboratory equipment, you name it.  We have laptops, iPads, and flip cameras... and word has it that we'll have smart boards in our classrooms too - I'm really crossing my fingers on that one!

I'm nervous about the fact that all the middle school teachers from this past year are leaving.  One of them is becoming a school leader at another KIPP school, but the others are going to another school district.  KIPP doesn't have a high retention rate for teachers, and when I asked why, I was told because there is no balance between work and your personal life.  I'm not sure if that will necessarily be the case for me... KCV has tripled the number of middle school teachers this coming year from last year, making the work load lighter on all of us.  I'll be teaching classes from 10:00 - 12:15 and 1:00 - 3:15, which is only four and a half hours a day.  The rest of the day, totaling about five hours, is for planning and preparing materials.  And that's Monday through Thursday--on Fridays I only have students for two hours because it's an early dismissal day.  When I was in Richardson I taught for about six hours each day, and I only had an hour for conference period.  In other words, I don't see how KIPP could be any more time consuming or demanding than my teaching position before.  We will see.