Summer was quite busy for me as I spent a lot of time writing, recording music in my home studio and practicing hard on my drums. Overall I had a great break from teaching as I made some serious progress with more than one of my creative endeavors. The thing I was happiest with was my drumming, which was demonstrated mostly at my gigs. I was really feeling it and when my band mates told me they saw a difference in my playing that really meant a lot to me because they are super talented and have my utmost respect.
Other than that I spent a lot of time doing a lot of exercise while making changes to my diet as I wanted to improve my health for personal reasons, to be stronger at future shows and to survive the upcoming school year as I knew I would be asked to do even more than I did the previous year. Before I knew it the last day of vacation had come and gone and now it was time to head back to work.
I must admit that during the last week of my vacation I was anxious to get back into my normal routine since teaching is what I do for a living and because I was looking forward to starting another year at St. Augustine Catholic High School. I was looking forward to seeing my colleagues who are also dear friends while also meeting our amazing new teachers who I knew would do so many great things for our school community.
Then there are those students who certainly keep things interesting. Last year was a great joy for me as I met some of the most amazing young people ever. Of course I was also excited to meet my new students, which would include most of the students in the senior class since I was changing schedules this year as well as the new freshmen class who were about to take a big step in their lives.
Before the students came though we had our regularly scheduled beginning of the year teacher meetings. Each day was filled with lots of love and laughs so right away it felt great to be back. I also had a great time meeting with my department members as we planned many of our theological activities for the upcoming semester.
The first day with students finally arrived and I started the day teaching the first of three senior Apologetics classes. This was the first time I taught this class but I was really excited about it because this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. So far we've had some great discussions and I've enjoyed giving them a chance to ask whatever questions were on their minds in order to do whatever I could to both guide them and to encourage them to think for themselves.
My other theology class is a Sacraments class, which is a subject I haven't taught in four years. This is a junior class so it reunited me with some of my students from the last school year and it was so good to see how much they had changed in a year's time. Right away we had some more laughs as well as some great discussions in class and I am looking forward to creating more memories with these amazing students.
I am also teaching the Freshmen Seminar class again and I must say that the students I have this year are great. They are so kind, respectful and eager to learn, which makes my job so much easier. I can already see that they truly appreciated everything I have shared with them as this class is designed to help our young students adjust to being in high school.
Finally, it was time to hit those drums again! The first challenge to my Percussion class was that after about two days of classes all of the schedule changes and other chaos led to me only have three students return from last year. While I would prefer to have more continuity in the class I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the eagerness and enthusiasm of both the returning St. A's students who wanted to give percussion a shot as their elective course along with the incoming freshmen who wanted to be in the class after seeing us perform at their feeder schools the year before. These students have all come in ready to go as they are willing to try anything and everything while most importantly, having fun! We have a lot of work to do and there will be some challenges as you can't just replace the amazing students I had last year but I am both looking forward to the challenge and the results these students will produce as their drive to do better is already there.
Aside from the new classes that I am teaching I am also working out of two new classrooms. My theology classroom is in another wing and the percussion room was moved out of the Administration building, which made so many people so happy! So in terms of starting a new year there are a lot of new things that have happened to me already, which allowed me to freshen up a bit.
Finally, the last thing I have to say is how grateful I have been to everyone at the school for making my first year back such a memorable one. I left for the summer feeling appreciated beyond measure, which only made me want to come back and work even harder this year. Change brings growth and this year has been one of the busiest starts of my teaching career. Aside from the regular preparations that come from teaching a new class and/or returning to a class that one hasn't taught in a while there have been other responsibilities that have fallen on my lap. I must admit that there are some days that I have already come home exhausted but not without feeling like I have really accomplished something. The great thing about this though is that I have plenty of help and support from my colleagues who are also working just as hard. I still feel that same sense of teamwork that I felt last school year so I am ready to go back every day for more.
I guess it's safe to say that this is going to be a great year.
Carlos Arthur Solorzano
@csolorzano18
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