A Very Welcome Break

Last week was a rough one. Behavior in the classroom got worse and worse as the days went on. Thursday I wrote my first referral. If I were to be completely honest I would say that it actually made me feel better. When a kid yells at a teacher at 8:15 in the morning, you know that you're off to a bad start. So writing a synopsis of what just happened and knowing that the VP gets to handle what happens next is slightly cathartic. The reality is that although I pride myself on being a Love and Logic teacher, there comes a point when love isn't making it anymore and all that's left is the logic and the consequences of your behavior. I was extremely pleased when 2:54 rolled around on Friday afternoon. I didn't actually run out of the building but I was pretty motivated to get those spelling scores in the grade book and be on my way to meet my friend to share our favorite chardonay.

This is my favorite break of the year because there is no holiday surrounding it. So it is just a time to breathe. On day 2 I already feel so much better. I am amazed at how other jobs and activities can be so rewarding. You can actually see what you accomplished. Teaching just doesn't lend itself to sitting back and looking at what you just did. My weekend thoughts have been filled with things like "Hey I cleaned out that closet! Doesn't it look great? "I pulled those weeds and you can actually see brown between the green now. Amazing." No, in teaching we are so time oriented that we just go from one chaotic event to the next. About the best I can do these days is reflect on how much better my lesson went for the second class than it did for the first. Well, that's something.

My weekly schedule is generally jam packed and starts every day at 7:30 with a before school reading class and ends at 4:00 with correcting, entering grades and preparations for the next day. It is amazing how quickly I can switch gears. My agenda for this week looks something like this:
Meet friends for coffee
Meet friends for lunch
Dentist appointment for teeth cleaning
Toyota recall appointment
Help my daughter move out of her classroom
Make final preparations for her baby shower
Breathe!