the first day of the rest of my life?

Today was my first day of school as a "pre-service teacher" (Nipissing's term; I much prefer "apprentice teacher"). It was decidedly busy yet simultaneously empty day. I am only in the class until the end of this week, then at Nipissing for four weeks, and so on until the end of this semester. I did, however, luck out in a number of significant ways. I will be teaching three classes: grade ten Canadian History (20th Century), grade eleven World Religions, and grade twelve Canadian and International Law. The World Religions class should be marvelous--I am already plotting ways to show Python's The Meaning of Life as part of the course, though I suppose that it may be too risque for even the public school board.

IIn some ways doing my placement at 'my' school may have been a mistake. I know the school too well; I can think of stupid teenage things I did at the school (or, more often, watched my friends do). Many of the older staff members taught me once upon a time; some of the younger were my classmates and even my babysitters, once. The students I am teaching are the siblings of my classmates, and the friends of my siblings. There are some I have known since they were four and five years old. How odd it is that they are now all grown up.

It is an interesting political climate to be getting into, as well. The school is about 200 students over its capacity, and has enough teachers for about 75% of that population. Many of the students have been unable to get the classes they wanted to take, taking instead whatever they can to fill their timetables. And yet there is a certain magic to it--the school has always been more than the sum of its parts.

Tonight it will be wings at Cellarman's with the lovely Mila. I've scarcely seen her this summer, what with her behaving like a mature adult and getting a real job. It should be grand. I'm tempted to make her see The Constant Gardener with me; it is exactly her type of movie, and for my part, I enjoyed it much more than I had anticipated. It is, in many ways, a devastating movie to watch...which makes watching it all the more important.