It's getting closer...

It truly is. The end of the school year is near. The end of a calendar year usually evokes the need for people to reflect on both their successes and failures that made the previous 12 months memorable... even if they want to try to forget much of it.

Truth is that this past school year was a number of things. It was challenging. It was fun. It was boring at times. It was tedious. It was fulfilling. It was frustrating. In the end, it was a success.

I still have yet to sign a contract for next year, yet the school is full steam ahead in planning my schedule for next year. I guess they are pretty confident that I will be able to get my job back for next year. All I'm saying is that I would feel much better if I had a signed contract on file somewhere.

Evidently, one of the ways I could increase my value as a teacher and ultimately retain my current job is to be a three season coach. I coached soccer last year and had a ton of fun and success doing it. Soccer was a sport I grew up playing, so it really wasn't a stretch trying to coach it. In SD, soccer is a winter sport, so I'm trying to get into coaching that. This leaves fall and spring to find a sport to coach. In the spring we have track, and help is always needed there.

The fall is for cross country. This seems like the most logical place for me to step in, but they seem to have a bunch of people helping out there. The AD (also the head football coach) asks me if I want to coach freshman football. Huh? Those who know me know that I have never even played organized football. I know the rules of the game, and I can play pickup games, but coach it? I agreed anyway, and felt in way over my head in the first meeting when the coaches were reviewing formations and zone d. As the feeling was starting to sink in that I might have made a mistake it was time to start a little spring football and meet some of the incoming freshmen for next year. It became evident that my football knowledge was greater than most of these kids'. Starting to feel a little more confident I began to step in as the receiver/DB coach. I now am able to fake it with a bit of confidence... I hope this helps save my job.

By the way, I think I get one day off between the end of school and summer school. Whoo Hoo!