Our department will have a new teacher this year and when I met with her earlier this month, she was understandably curious about what she would be teaching (I didn't know). She also had other logical questions about her new job and school opening, many of which I had no answers to. COVID has made the 2021 school year start especially confusing, but in my experience, the beginning of the school year is often characterized by a "fly by the seat of your pants" ethos. Critical information about our schedule and what/who we are teaching is often delivered days before school starts. My new colleague was fortunately able to get access to a relatively firm teaching schedule, although I cautioned her to be ready for quite a few bumps on the road during the weeks before and after opening day.
Like the sucker that I am, I have been digging a bit deeper than I probably should be into planning for the first month of school (I've been burned before, with my assignment being changed at a late date, rendering my summer preparation useless). I've often thought about how this hard restart each year makes teaching unique among professions. Late August is for dreaming up ambitious plans and aspirational schemes for big changes in how I run my classroom. September and October are often humbling as these plans run up against intractable realities. Many do not survive the encounter. But I can do my best to be flexible (I've had lots of practice) and I'm excited to see what this second (third?) pandemic school year has in store.
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