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 title: Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?
 date: 2024-11-09 22:38:00
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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 [0]), 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 [1].

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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[0]: http://flower.codes/2024/02/19/pulse-check.html
[1]: https://decrypt.education
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EOF