According to the WordPress record, the following entry was ” Last edited by jasonwrites on 23 June 2007 at 10:54 am” Almost one year ago. Things don’t change; now I am once again faced with recapping a year in one entry because I didn’t keep up during the course of it. It’s a bit hypocritical of me to go by the screen name “jasonwrites” if I’m not going to write– so one of my major projects this summer is promoting truth in advertising. I did write this at the beginning of last summer, but for whatever reason did not publish it. Now I am, in the hopes it will give me a springboard to compare and contrast what a difference a year has made…

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(Originally written: June 23, 2007)

It’s been way, way too long.

Almost five months since I’ve posted anywhere. Each passing day increases the risk of irrevocably unbalancing the cosmos.

With the passing years– I’ve done this gig since the end of 2000– I see more and more what an indulgence in narcissism the exercise of blogging is. That became apparent even before the advent of the Myspace/YouTube era. I’m a strong advocate for freedom of self-expression. Go out there and show the world who you are– though preferably through your thoughts, and not excessive photographic detail. But the older I get, the more I think, who really cares what I have to say?

The short answer is: me. I care. Sure, I could write privately, but I don’t. The ability to post for anyone online to see has saved me from utter writing oblivion. I’m not sure why I need to do it this way– it probably involves at least a bit of that abovementioned, regrettable personality trait. I get to feeling surly when I fall out of the habit– and this time has become the longest hiatus (intentional or not) I’ve had since the beginning of my blogging career. I can’t underestimate the importance my presence could have; after all, it’s only through my blog that I met my wife, five years ago.

My absence has been due to the overwhelming, well, overwhelmingness of my first year teaching. I thought this blog would be a good outlet for me, but it wasn’t much help when I never got to it. I could never escape the guilt of feeling that there was something more important I should be doing than “wasting” my time writing the account of my mundane life for two, maybe three, people other than me to read.

By not saying all I could say along the way, I’m now left with mental mush, incapable of articulating much about the year. They tell you the first year is all about survival, and to some extent that’s all that I feel I did. But I got a passing review (reviews have only two boxes to check for each category– either Meets/Exceeds Standards or Does Not Meet Standards; it’s basically a pass/fail), and so I get to come back again next year. The surprise was that I am slotted to teach Social Studies exclusively next year.

The endorsement on my license is in English Language Arts. Normally, a secondary (grades 7-12) teacher can only teacher in the subject area of his or her endorsement, but, under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a teacher is considered “highly qualified” in a subject area– regardless of holding a state endorsement or not– if he or she has at least 24 credit hours of coursework in that area. So, while my major was English as an undergraduate, I minored in Psychology, one of the social sciences; that’s 12, or half, of the 24, and the other 12 come from a couple in History, one in Political Science, and I think one in Educational Psychology. Piece it together and I have exactly 24 credit hours in those subjects with collectively comprise “Social Studies.” Meaning that, even without an endorsement, I am “highly qualified” under NCLB to teach Social Studies.

So, I advertised that fact on my résumé, and was beginning to think that I wouldn’t get a job for the year, when I interviewed at Manning at was offered the split LA/SS position. Fact of that matter is, I wouldn’t have got that job if I couldn’t teach both, and I don’t know what else would have come my way. I didn’t expect the “split” to be nearly as difficult as it turned out to be. Many colleagues commented that it was a tough assignment for a first-year teacher. But I soldiered through. I don’t feel I was more than adequate at best, but I made it.

However, it appears I wasn’t quite good enough, at least in Language Arts (my “natural” subject). Mainly, I didn’t keep up with grading to the expectations of parents there. I can only guess that there was more of an issue there with LA, because when I was told that I would be moved to SS full-time next year, I soon afterward learned that they would be hiring a new full-time LA teacher.

I resented, slightly, that I couldn’t even have the chance to compete for the new position. Still, I’m happy that I still have a position to call my own, and at an exceptional school. I can’t help the feeling that I’m not “good enough” to teach LA there– but SS is OK– and there’s a politically incorrect statement coming: Social Studies is just not as important. Neither is Science. As two of the four “core” subjects, they do trump art, music, P.E., and all those other silly things that we really don’t need to make kids well-rounded individuals (I jest, but many legislators suggest as much when they cut funding for “electives”). But Language Arts and Math will always reign supreme because therein, students learn those old three “R”s: reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that’s exactly what they have to show they know on state standardized tests, which have become the end-all, be-all assessments of learning under NCLB.

Here in Colorado those supertests are collectively known as CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program). Sure enough, every single year during grades 3-10, students are tested on reading, writing, and math. Science gets in the mix currently only twice,