Back to School

This past week marked the start of my seventeenth year teaching, and it was a good one. Great to see my returning 8th grade students, and great to meet my incoming 7th graders. Only a hundred or so names to keep track of, but I'm doing all right. It helps when they answer to "Hey you." 

If I've done my math right, I've taught a thousand kids since I landed my first teaching position right out of college. It's cool to stay in touch with many of them and hear about their careers and families. They're getting married, having kids, living the American dream. Making the world a better place.

Believe it or not, I've been at the same school all this time. I taught 5th grade for a few years prior to taking my middle school English position, and for the past five years, I've been privileged to teach a creative writing elective. That class is too much fun, let me tell you.

It's always tough to find balance during the school year. I get home exhausted and have to push myself hard to get any writing done. A thousand words a day? If I'm lucky. More like a few hundred here and there, whenever I can jot them down. But I'll get back to my 1K/day goal eventually. 

Right now I'm editing a novella I wrote during the summer, a brand new Charlie Madison detective story that picks up where Yakuza Territory left off. Hope to have it polished up and ready to submit to publishers by the end of September. That'll be my homework for the next month.