It's been a very long time since I've posted anything here--don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you all; it just turns out that the first year as a teacher is extremely time-consuming.
Whodathunkit, right?
From building my curriculum, one lesson at a time (fun), to grading and learning classroom management (less fun), to administrative tasks (not fun at all), it's been a hell of a first three months!
But don't fret, because I am loving the lifestyle change. While, yes, it is pretty damn exhausting (teaching is an endurance sport, apparently), it's also been the most rewarding experience of my life. I've had students teach lessons on ethical hacking and assembly language to their classmates, written my first letters of recommendation (and at least one of those students has already gotten early-acceptance into one of their top schools), brought in guest speakers (with more to come), survived my first parent-teacher conferences, and got through it all without a single panic attack (and a suspicious absence of back pain).
Sure, the salary isn't anything to write home about (in fact, it's less than my mortgage, which has an interesting challenge to grapple with), coffee is still my primary survival mechanism, and I've rediscovered the long-lost art of napping, but I'm happy for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long.
Now that the end of my first semester is approaching its end, I'm hoping to get back into my writing habit. It's the one primary habit that I haven't been able to carry through from my past life, and the one thing I miss the most.
On the "what else is going on with my life" front, I've been studying my proficiencies for the Entered Apprentice degree on my path to becoming a Master Mason (which some of you may remember I started earlier this year), and have also been working on a new website to better document my journey as a teacher (and share my lesson plans out for other computer science and cybersecurity teachers to use). I'm not quite ready to launch it to the wider world yet, but for my tens of readers I'd love to give you a sneak peak and solicit feedback.
The site is called Decrypt.ED, and can be found (predictably) at https://decrypt.education.
Coincidentally, I also missed the 100 Days to Offload challenge by 40 days, which I kicked off one-year ago today exactly. Interesting how that came together, eh?
Hope y'all are doing well, and that you'll get to hear from me soon (and more often)!
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If you like this post or one of my projects, you can buy me a coffee, or send me a note. I'd love to hear from you!