all in good time

I have been staying at my parents recently. I will be here until the day before my surgery and then back here recuperating. I drove down to my place today to check on Clark, the class turtle, pay my rent for the month of August, and check my mail to see if my new contract had arrived. Indeed it had. I am getting ready to start my 6th year with the Educational Service center of Franklin County. I finally was offered a 2 year contract. It's about time. My supervisor could not understand why I was still having to be evaluated every year. I told her it was because I was still only receiving 1 year contracts. With this 2 year contract, I will not have to be evaluated this year. Not that I do a bad job. I have always gotten excellent reviews. But even after 11 years in the field I still hate being observed. It is the not knowing what is going to happen during a lesson. That and the fact that I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. I do my lessons day by day instead of by the week. It has been my experience that anything can happen and I never seem to get through a week's worth of plans. I also hate being tied down by things. I have a general idea of how I want the week to go. It drove me crazy at my previous job that everything was so structured for the students. I realize our population needs routine but there comes a time when you have to teach them that routines may change. There are always things that are going to come up that we aren't expecting. There is also the fact that I just plain hate writing lessons plans. My assistant and I are so finely attuned to each other that she can pretty much run things when I am not there. My students know that we have a general schedule that we follow but they don't necessarily know what order we are going to proceed in. As I like to say "expect the unexpected". Therefore when I know I am being observed it makes me worry. My supervisors have never been on time for a lesson I am teaching. They always seem to come in midway. I also believe that every moment is a teachable moment and why waste paper if I know what I am doing. I know, I know. What if you get sick? How will the sub know what to do? I have "plans" in my sub folder. Also I call my assistant and let her know I am going to be out. I then e-mail her a copy of my days plans to print off. Like I said, she's good. There is also the fact that I rarely take a sick day. So needless to say I am ecstatic that I do not have to be observed this year.