So sorry to revert back to school news...I know, I know...I'm supposed to be uploading my most recent pics of Sydney. It's been ages. Forgive me.
I simply couldn't resist adding this story of my ghost in the trailer. I think all I had to do was lug out my fridge, two Globe theaters students made for extra credit, and a few odds and ends. Everything else was packed, moved, or tossed. I took one last look around, and locked my door on Thursday afternoon. Exams were done. Grades were posted. I was finished except for a few minor things...
Friday morning rolls around. I walk up to my trailer. No, I don't have much in there, but I still have keys, and it still has a/c, so you bet I was going to park my stuff in there until I truly was finished for the summer. I enter, go to my desk to put everything down, and realize that my bookcase at the back of the room has been moved 1 foot away from the wall. Nothing else was touched, and almost everything else is gone. I go closer to look, thinking perhaps the janitor decided to vacuum, which is pointless since the trailer will no longer be at Byrd (so they tell us) at the beginning of the new school year. Nope. Classroom crumblies still on the ground around it.
Rafe comes in his side of the trailer about 15 minutes later. I ask him if, for some strange reason, he moved my bookcase. He says he was going to ask me why I moved it. Obviously, that's a 'no.'
The only thing I can think of, and it doesn't hold much water, is that the vibrations from the construction caused it to shift, now that it is empty. But nothing else in the trailer has shifted, so that makes no sense whatsoever. The janitor wouldn't have moved it just because. Rafe said it must be "My" ghost that did it.
I wonder if this is the ghost we used to have at home, since I haven't seen much action here lately? Did it follow me to school one day? I wonder if it will be there next year when I am (supposedly) inside the building instead of in a trailer?
Either way, whatever the entity is, it is by no means malignant. So, we'll see...stay tuned in 2 months and I'll let you know! :-)
And one last bit of news: Happy Birthday, honey! I love you!! :-)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
I Will Survive
And we're finally done! Today is a work day (a.k.a. - make sure everything is cleaned out so the construction workers can do their thing this summer-day). Tomorrow is graduation. I am so happy and excited, but at the same time, unsettled. I've never had seniors before. Saying goodbye to them gave a whole new meaning to me because I know they won't be just showing up randomly next year to say hi - all are going to college; some more locally than others, but they've got their lives on track. I am happy and excited for them. I remember, fondly, my preparations for college and my first year. This is a whole new book for them to open and write in. But I will miss them terribly. We had a lot of fun in 12 AP.
I also have absolutely no idea what I'm teaching next year, other than 12 AP. I don't know how many preps I'll have. I don't know where I'll be. For the first time EVER, I don't think I'll be doing a whole lot of prep work over the summer, only because I don't know what to prepare. I will be reviewing my 12 AP, though, since I missed 3 months of it for maternity leave. I also have my conference to go to. But other than that...
A friend of ours who is a trucker for UPS and I chat in the mornings as I drive Sydney to the sitter. He works night shift, so as I'm getting going, he's finishing his run before heading home. We've been trying to 'meet up' on the road for a month, now. We always seem to miss each other. Either I'm running late and he's on time, or I'm ahead of him on the road. Well, today, last day, we were both running late. It worked out perfectly! I got to wave at Rick as he drove by, and later, when I caught up to him on 581 (no, I wasn't speeding. He drives a double-long tractor trailer. Not difficult to catch up...), I rolled down the back window so Sydney could see him. It was pretty cool, and a nice way to start the day. Sydney loved the wind in his face and the familiar smile beaming down on him, too.
I know I haven't posted pics in a while. Bear with me. After we truly complete the school year I will have much more time to delve into technology. I plan on posting videos of Snickerdoodle crawling, too. Next year is going to be so much fun, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this summer to the last drop.
I also have absolutely no idea what I'm teaching next year, other than 12 AP. I don't know how many preps I'll have. I don't know where I'll be. For the first time EVER, I don't think I'll be doing a whole lot of prep work over the summer, only because I don't know what to prepare. I will be reviewing my 12 AP, though, since I missed 3 months of it for maternity leave. I also have my conference to go to. But other than that...
A friend of ours who is a trucker for UPS and I chat in the mornings as I drive Sydney to the sitter. He works night shift, so as I'm getting going, he's finishing his run before heading home. We've been trying to 'meet up' on the road for a month, now. We always seem to miss each other. Either I'm running late and he's on time, or I'm ahead of him on the road. Well, today, last day, we were both running late. It worked out perfectly! I got to wave at Rick as he drove by, and later, when I caught up to him on 581 (no, I wasn't speeding. He drives a double-long tractor trailer. Not difficult to catch up...), I rolled down the back window so Sydney could see him. It was pretty cool, and a nice way to start the day. Sydney loved the wind in his face and the familiar smile beaming down on him, too.
I know I haven't posted pics in a while. Bear with me. After we truly complete the school year I will have much more time to delve into technology. I plan on posting videos of Snickerdoodle crawling, too. Next year is going to be so much fun, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this summer to the last drop.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Biorhythms
Circa 1993.
The place: my old high school: AP Biology class
The topic at hand was biorhythms.
Ever since the classes where we calculated our own biorhythms, I've been intrigued by them. Do I believe them? Kind of and not really - rather paradoxical. If I'm feeling REALLY good, or just plain lousy, I'll check my biorhythm. I don't have to calculate my own any more. There are a plethora of websites that will do it for you. I use this one, though this one is pretty cool because it gives numbers instead of ratios.
Last week, on a whim, I looked up where I currently stood on my chart. And then I made the mistake of looking 2, then 3, then 5, then 7 days ahead to where I would be the week of exams. Ouch. That's all I have to say. I was not looking forward to putting forth the mental effort to grade exams with what my bell curves said.
But at the same time, I was determined that no stupid computer program could possibly tell me how I felt and would feel. Now, keep in mind, the biorhythms don't necessarily dictate what will happen (this isn't the same as astrology...). Instead, it is more of an indicator of how you will react to what DOES happen to you, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. And I still was determined not to let a computer tell me how I'd be feeling.
I thought I had beaten the idea. I checked the website on Thursday of last week and saw a steady downturn on my charts, but I had a really great Sunday with Steve and Sydney. So, the charts were wrong, right? Well, I've been in a bit of a funk the last two days. I put on a cheery exterior because, hey, it's the end of the school year and I should be very thankful that I'll have a whole 2 months with Snickerdoodle where we can play, learn Italian, and play some more. But is my funk a result of the subconscious being more powerful than I initially thought? Or is the biorhythm truly accurate?
Check yours out and let me know where you stand. Watch it for a few days, my readers, and, seriously, let me know if you think this is a bunch of poppycock or not...
The place: my old high school: AP Biology class
The topic at hand was biorhythms.
Ever since the classes where we calculated our own biorhythms, I've been intrigued by them. Do I believe them? Kind of and not really - rather paradoxical. If I'm feeling REALLY good, or just plain lousy, I'll check my biorhythm. I don't have to calculate my own any more. There are a plethora of websites that will do it for you. I use this one, though this one is pretty cool because it gives numbers instead of ratios.
Last week, on a whim, I looked up where I currently stood on my chart. And then I made the mistake of looking 2, then 3, then 5, then 7 days ahead to where I would be the week of exams. Ouch. That's all I have to say. I was not looking forward to putting forth the mental effort to grade exams with what my bell curves said.
But at the same time, I was determined that no stupid computer program could possibly tell me how I felt and would feel. Now, keep in mind, the biorhythms don't necessarily dictate what will happen (this isn't the same as astrology...). Instead, it is more of an indicator of how you will react to what DOES happen to you, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. And I still was determined not to let a computer tell me how I'd be feeling.
I thought I had beaten the idea. I checked the website on Thursday of last week and saw a steady downturn on my charts, but I had a really great Sunday with Steve and Sydney. So, the charts were wrong, right? Well, I've been in a bit of a funk the last two days. I put on a cheery exterior because, hey, it's the end of the school year and I should be very thankful that I'll have a whole 2 months with Snickerdoodle where we can play, learn Italian, and play some more. But is my funk a result of the subconscious being more powerful than I initially thought? Or is the biorhythm truly accurate?
Check yours out and let me know where you stand. Watch it for a few days, my readers, and, seriously, let me know if you think this is a bunch of poppycock or not...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The Bane that is Technology
It really should be more simple. Especially in the 21st century. All I wanted was to connect my school-issued laptop to our new router so I could more easily complete school tasks...
It started with the purchase of our new router. I asked a sales clerk if there was anything special I needed to know. I am by no means an expert in technology, but I do have a basic understanding of how things work. I am not fearful of trying something new, either. But I do (and did) get very frustrated at times.
Sales clerk said it should be fine. In fact, it was the exact same router she used with her school-issued laptop, except she's a student. 'Nuff said. We bought the router.
Steve was actually more excited to get started on hooking everything up than I was. But I was more distracted with a newly-crawling Sydney, so...
He attempts to follow the directions on how to set up the router. BIG MISTAKE! We succeed in getting short with each other. But then again, both of us were running on fumes at that point and truly needed a good night's sleep. We took a step back, refocused, and attempted, again, to figure the router out. In the process of trying to see where connections needed to be made, I turned off a power-strip that connected to more than I initially realized. We lost our cable connection when the modem was turned off.
I called the cable company, and we had to go through steps to get the cable reconnected. The first phone call didn't work. I called again and this time was connected directly to a representative. She was very helpful and ensured the cable worked, but only the HD channels really came through. And we have more channels that are not HD than are. All the others were incredibly fuzzy. Argh! She said to truly correct the issue, we needed to have someone come to the house to fix whatever went wrong. It would take 4 days to do so.
So, 4 fuzzy days later, the cable man comes to the house. He was very helpful, too, but basically told us that when the phone representative refreshed the cable connection to the house, it connected with a different pixel count than what we initially had, which was fantastic for the HD channels, but completely detrimental to the non-HD channels. I don't really understand all this, but suffice it to say, if we have something we really want to see on a few non-HD channels in particular, we have to manually adjust the pixel thingybopperwhatjamajiggers. Aargh!!
Cable dude also helped Steve (no, not helped...he couldn't touch anything...nonchalantly spoke of the easiest way...) to connect the router to the modem, etc. It was exactly as my friend Rafe said to do it (whom I asked the Monday after all this happened). Well, we figured things were looking up at this point. Too soon. Should have known better since this is, after all, Steve and Dionne, who have the crappiest of luck at times.
Steve is excited that we can finally load the router software on my laptop. I bring it home from school, we load the disc, and...nothing. It tries to connect, says I need the key (guarded wifi), I load the key, it tries to connect, says I need the key, and so on and so forth. I cannot figure out why it keeps cycling. Even Rafe didn't know what to say when I told him. Aaargh!!!
And to add insult to injury, for some confounded reason, our vcr/dvd player isn't connecting to play dvds any longer! Steve and I got cuddled up and ready to watch a good movie last night. The player says it is playing the movie, and the timer moves, but the tv screen will not show the movie. I have absolutely no idea what the cable guy did, but Steve says he admitted he cut a cord somewhere and thought it was a cable cord. We checked all cords to make sure they were plugged in and cannot fathom where something went wrong.
And all because of a little router...
It started with the purchase of our new router. I asked a sales clerk if there was anything special I needed to know. I am by no means an expert in technology, but I do have a basic understanding of how things work. I am not fearful of trying something new, either. But I do (and did) get very frustrated at times.
Sales clerk said it should be fine. In fact, it was the exact same router she used with her school-issued laptop, except she's a student. 'Nuff said. We bought the router.
Steve was actually more excited to get started on hooking everything up than I was. But I was more distracted with a newly-crawling Sydney, so...
He attempts to follow the directions on how to set up the router. BIG MISTAKE! We succeed in getting short with each other. But then again, both of us were running on fumes at that point and truly needed a good night's sleep. We took a step back, refocused, and attempted, again, to figure the router out. In the process of trying to see where connections needed to be made, I turned off a power-strip that connected to more than I initially realized. We lost our cable connection when the modem was turned off.
I called the cable company, and we had to go through steps to get the cable reconnected. The first phone call didn't work. I called again and this time was connected directly to a representative. She was very helpful and ensured the cable worked, but only the HD channels really came through. And we have more channels that are not HD than are. All the others were incredibly fuzzy. Argh! She said to truly correct the issue, we needed to have someone come to the house to fix whatever went wrong. It would take 4 days to do so.
So, 4 fuzzy days later, the cable man comes to the house. He was very helpful, too, but basically told us that when the phone representative refreshed the cable connection to the house, it connected with a different pixel count than what we initially had, which was fantastic for the HD channels, but completely detrimental to the non-HD channels. I don't really understand all this, but suffice it to say, if we have something we really want to see on a few non-HD channels in particular, we have to manually adjust the pixel thingybopperwhatjamajiggers. Aargh!!
Cable dude also helped Steve (no, not helped...he couldn't touch anything...nonchalantly spoke of the easiest way...) to connect the router to the modem, etc. It was exactly as my friend Rafe said to do it (whom I asked the Monday after all this happened). Well, we figured things were looking up at this point. Too soon. Should have known better since this is, after all, Steve and Dionne, who have the crappiest of luck at times.
Steve is excited that we can finally load the router software on my laptop. I bring it home from school, we load the disc, and...nothing. It tries to connect, says I need the key (guarded wifi), I load the key, it tries to connect, says I need the key, and so on and so forth. I cannot figure out why it keeps cycling. Even Rafe didn't know what to say when I told him. Aaargh!!!
And to add insult to injury, for some confounded reason, our vcr/dvd player isn't connecting to play dvds any longer! Steve and I got cuddled up and ready to watch a good movie last night. The player says it is playing the movie, and the timer moves, but the tv screen will not show the movie. I have absolutely no idea what the cable guy did, but Steve says he admitted he cut a cord somewhere and thought it was a cable cord. We checked all cords to make sure they were plugged in and cannot fathom where something went wrong.
And all because of a little router...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Irony and Updates
The school year is almost over. I mentioned to my freshmen that I keep a blog and they wanted to know the address, so I wrote it on the board. One delightful child asked what a quandary was. I said what any good teacher would say..."Look it up" and pointed to my stack of dictionaries that are ready to be toted back to the English office for storage over the summer.
Said child tried looking it up but couldn't find it. I thought there must be some mistake. I looked in the dictionary and found the word, but realized for the first time that it is spelled with an 'a' after the 'd.' I never knew that. I have always heard it pronounced 'quandree,' not 'quandaree' and ergo, never thought to look up the spelling. I am an English teacher and I fully admit that I made a mistake, but I am horrified at this, especially since my url still has the incorrect spelling. I was able to fix my title, though, so that is good. If nothing else, I think I'll say it was intended from the beginning (perhaps unconsciously) as a way to examine the conundrums facing us all each day. And perhaps my 3rd block learned a lesson from me...
Snickerdoodle is crawling. It is official, and it started last weekend. He's moving very easily, though still hesitantly. I think that is only because he wants to see everything and can't decide which to go to first. He's pulling himself up when we hold his arms, though not by himself on furniture just yet. I expect that will come very quickly now that he knows he can do it. It's too fast. I was hoping to have my baby boy just a little longer. He'll be walking before the summer is out, definitely. He's not even 9 months yet...
Sydney's also become a regular when it comes to pulling my hair. He does it to hold on, to bring my head in so he can kiss me, to comfort him when he's frightened or unsure...it's not so bad when I'm "all there," but when I'm exhausted or stressed, it is hard to prevent and usually leads to a headache. Summer is coming, so I figured I'd go drastic. I chopped my hair. I imagined I'd go shorter than I actually did (I was thinking a boy-cut) but instead, I have layers that will probably curl up and eventually drive me crazy. But for now, I like it. It is lighter, cooler, and hopefully easy to style. Regardless, I'll have 2 months to grow it out if I find I don't like it. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some taken.
Last, Steve and I are trying to determine how the summer will unfold. We're planning a trip to DC - he's never really been and we both feel there is much to see while there. My sister would like us to come visit her in Florida. We'd love to, but are not sure we'd be able to do both. I have a conference I have to go to the week of my birthday. In between all that, we simply want to spend time as a family and bask in the glory of the 8-11 month old baby/toddler that is Sydney.
As for now, I have one more week to go before I can thoroughly clean this house (no cleaning ever gets done the last month of school...wonder why...) and set aside my books, plans, etc. for just a little break. I completed a massive amount of grading today and plan on enjoying myself tomorrow. Plenty of time to stress over essays. Dionne out.
Said child tried looking it up but couldn't find it. I thought there must be some mistake. I looked in the dictionary and found the word, but realized for the first time that it is spelled with an 'a' after the 'd.' I never knew that. I have always heard it pronounced 'quandree,' not 'quandaree' and ergo, never thought to look up the spelling. I am an English teacher and I fully admit that I made a mistake, but I am horrified at this, especially since my url still has the incorrect spelling. I was able to fix my title, though, so that is good. If nothing else, I think I'll say it was intended from the beginning (perhaps unconsciously) as a way to examine the conundrums facing us all each day. And perhaps my 3rd block learned a lesson from me...
Snickerdoodle is crawling. It is official, and it started last weekend. He's moving very easily, though still hesitantly. I think that is only because he wants to see everything and can't decide which to go to first. He's pulling himself up when we hold his arms, though not by himself on furniture just yet. I expect that will come very quickly now that he knows he can do it. It's too fast. I was hoping to have my baby boy just a little longer. He'll be walking before the summer is out, definitely. He's not even 9 months yet...
Sydney's also become a regular when it comes to pulling my hair. He does it to hold on, to bring my head in so he can kiss me, to comfort him when he's frightened or unsure...it's not so bad when I'm "all there," but when I'm exhausted or stressed, it is hard to prevent and usually leads to a headache. Summer is coming, so I figured I'd go drastic. I chopped my hair. I imagined I'd go shorter than I actually did (I was thinking a boy-cut) but instead, I have layers that will probably curl up and eventually drive me crazy. But for now, I like it. It is lighter, cooler, and hopefully easy to style. Regardless, I'll have 2 months to grow it out if I find I don't like it. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some taken.
Last, Steve and I are trying to determine how the summer will unfold. We're planning a trip to DC - he's never really been and we both feel there is much to see while there. My sister would like us to come visit her in Florida. We'd love to, but are not sure we'd be able to do both. I have a conference I have to go to the week of my birthday. In between all that, we simply want to spend time as a family and bask in the glory of the 8-11 month old baby/toddler that is Sydney.
As for now, I have one more week to go before I can thoroughly clean this house (no cleaning ever gets done the last month of school...wonder why...) and set aside my books, plans, etc. for just a little break. I completed a massive amount of grading today and plan on enjoying myself tomorrow. Plenty of time to stress over essays. Dionne out.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Pondering Freud
My id has been popping up more, lately.
When I was an undergraduate at Radford University, I took Psych 101. Fascinating class. One of the things I really obtained from it was Freud's identification of the parts of the human psyche - the id, the superego, and the ego. The id is the impulse center for instant-gratification. The superego is your Mother/Jiminy Cricket sitting on your shoulder shaming you for anything you do wrong. The ego tries to make peace between the two and present a well-adjusted human being to society.
I wanted a slight refresher on the roles each play in our psyche, so I checked out the Wikipedia page that discusses each. Later yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from a previous student/friend who wanted feedback on an idea for a novel. Odd thing is, his main characters are anti-heroes who live in the id. I pointed out that the anti-hero sympathy may be achieved simply by making his characters live out what everyone wishes they could do, but are refrained from doing so by the superego...
Last night, I was working on a project for my 12 AP students (shh! They'll find out soon enough what it is!) while the tv was on. It was showing Queen Latifah's Last Holiday. Cute movie. Wouldn't have paid to see it in a theater, but I enjoyed it in a 'brain candy' sort of way. The key, though is that the main character here thought she was dying and decided to blow every last cent she had and do whatever she pleased. Another instance of living in the id. Wiki research; former student; movie on tv. Funny how things work in threes...
Why can't I allow myself to do that more often? Why is my superego so developed that only a tiny window of 'wishes' exists in my personality? At times I feel torn between what I feel I need to do and must do, and with what I want to do. But what repercussions exist for those who 'live in the id?' What would society be if we all let loose and 'lived in the id?' Anarchy? Or would those members who still retained their superego and ego simply shake their heads at us 'ids' and mumble about the fall of society? When is it allowable to let the id sneak through the door? If any of you have stories from the id, let me know when you've let loose, and how it felt. I'd love to hear more.
When I was an undergraduate at Radford University, I took Psych 101. Fascinating class. One of the things I really obtained from it was Freud's identification of the parts of the human psyche - the id, the superego, and the ego. The id is the impulse center for instant-gratification. The superego is your Mother/Jiminy Cricket sitting on your shoulder shaming you for anything you do wrong. The ego tries to make peace between the two and present a well-adjusted human being to society.
I wanted a slight refresher on the roles each play in our psyche, so I checked out the Wikipedia page that discusses each. Later yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from a previous student/friend who wanted feedback on an idea for a novel. Odd thing is, his main characters are anti-heroes who live in the id. I pointed out that the anti-hero sympathy may be achieved simply by making his characters live out what everyone wishes they could do, but are refrained from doing so by the superego...
Last night, I was working on a project for my 12 AP students (shh! They'll find out soon enough what it is!) while the tv was on. It was showing Queen Latifah's Last Holiday. Cute movie. Wouldn't have paid to see it in a theater, but I enjoyed it in a 'brain candy' sort of way. The key, though is that the main character here thought she was dying and decided to blow every last cent she had and do whatever she pleased. Another instance of living in the id. Wiki research; former student; movie on tv. Funny how things work in threes...
Why can't I allow myself to do that more often? Why is my superego so developed that only a tiny window of 'wishes' exists in my personality? At times I feel torn between what I feel I need to do and must do, and with what I want to do. But what repercussions exist for those who 'live in the id?' What would society be if we all let loose and 'lived in the id?' Anarchy? Or would those members who still retained their superego and ego simply shake their heads at us 'ids' and mumble about the fall of society? When is it allowable to let the id sneak through the door? If any of you have stories from the id, let me know when you've let loose, and how it felt. I'd love to hear more.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Stories from the Finish Line
So, the finish line is in sight...one more week of classes, a week of exams, and graduation! Yippee!! In the meantime, I've got another good one for you...
My freshmen usually read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in class. Due to the vast number of school days cancelled by snow this year, we got so far behind that there simply wasn't enough time. My freshmen are assigned Outside Reading projects due at the end of each semester, and I highly recommended TKAM since I knew we wouldn't have time to read it in class. Approximately 95% of my students took me up on that suggestion.
One student confessed to me yesterday that when I first said the title of the book out loud in class, she thought it was about something completely different (goes to show how well she paid attention, since I gave a synopsis of the novel when I recommended it...). She thought the title was Tequila Mockingbird... Classic!
This year has been rather difficult for many, many reasons. Attempting to be ready for the new year and a new baby all at the same time; 4 classrooms; handing over my classes to a substitute for 3 months and then attempting to come back and figure out where everything was (only because I wasn't the one who put it wherever it was!); my husband's struggles with his current career; my father's illness and death; construction; SOLs with no air conditioning; no idea how things are going to be next year...
Frankly, I'm ready for a break. I usually teach night classes during the summer terms at National College. I haven't gotten in touch with my contact there in a while, and I believe the next term starts next week. I don't think I want to teach this summer. I want to try to enjoy my son's unbelievable growth and energy and recapture the essence of "Dionne" so I will be ready for next year.
So here's to closing the year. Here's to all the teachers out there. We all deserve a break, especially with the limitations budgeting has put on us. Here's to getting a breather so we can all be at our best in the Fall. It's all about the kids, and anyone worth anything in this occupation will recognize that and push through any concerns. In the meantime, I can't wait for June 12th...
My freshmen usually read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in class. Due to the vast number of school days cancelled by snow this year, we got so far behind that there simply wasn't enough time. My freshmen are assigned Outside Reading projects due at the end of each semester, and I highly recommended TKAM since I knew we wouldn't have time to read it in class. Approximately 95% of my students took me up on that suggestion.
One student confessed to me yesterday that when I first said the title of the book out loud in class, she thought it was about something completely different (goes to show how well she paid attention, since I gave a synopsis of the novel when I recommended it...). She thought the title was Tequila Mockingbird... Classic!
This year has been rather difficult for many, many reasons. Attempting to be ready for the new year and a new baby all at the same time; 4 classrooms; handing over my classes to a substitute for 3 months and then attempting to come back and figure out where everything was (only because I wasn't the one who put it wherever it was!); my husband's struggles with his current career; my father's illness and death; construction; SOLs with no air conditioning; no idea how things are going to be next year...
Frankly, I'm ready for a break. I usually teach night classes during the summer terms at National College. I haven't gotten in touch with my contact there in a while, and I believe the next term starts next week. I don't think I want to teach this summer. I want to try to enjoy my son's unbelievable growth and energy and recapture the essence of "Dionne" so I will be ready for next year.
So here's to closing the year. Here's to all the teachers out there. We all deserve a break, especially with the limitations budgeting has put on us. Here's to getting a breather so we can all be at our best in the Fall. It's all about the kids, and anyone worth anything in this occupation will recognize that and push through any concerns. In the meantime, I can't wait for June 12th...
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