Chess Club

Today my AP asked if I'd be willing to revive the school's chess club. I have no idea why she'd ask me, other than the fact that I'm a new, naive, first-year teacher. I told her that it was more appropriate of a request than she knew.

My dad was the chess fiend. He loved the game and spent all his time, while he was still well, playing the game and teaching students how to develop their strategies. When I was in middle school, he started the middle school chess team. Then, I moved to high school and so did the chess team. When I moved away to college, he expanded his operation and had chess teams at both high schools in town.

I have played the game since I was a little boy. I think I'll tell my AP tomorrow that I'd love to bring back the chess club.



In other news, I will be losing 4 more students tomorrow, much to my chagrin, and I gained a new kid today. My students give a whole new meaning to the label "mobile generation." Since school has started, I have lost 14 students and gained 3.

Teachers at my school have told me that it's normal to have this much turnover as often as we do, because we live in such a mobile community. When I get a new kid, though, it's not as easy as just giving him/her the work. I have to give diagnostics to determine their current content levels, and I have to reteach management and classroom procedures.

One of my partner teachers told me that last year, she had actually lost and gained an entire homeroom by the end of the year! That means, that by the end of the year, 27 students had been moved and replaced on her roster with new students... that's ridiculous! Turnover makes the teacher's job so much harder, not to mention stiffles the progress of the student.

I just fell asleep on my keyboard, so I think that means it's bedtime for me.