Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The kids are at P.E. right now so I have some time to sit down and reflect on the week. I rarely write a journal entry at school because, let’s face it, who has the time? Today is the last school day of the week, though, and there are no tests. The kids being gone gives me a moment or two to breathe. Lately, finding time to sit down at my desk is a rare treat. I have found myself running around the room hanging this or that, filing papers, grading papers, organizing the different papers (writing goes here, progress reports go there, behavior reports go here, etc.). There’s never enough time in one day, is there?
After my ranting from my last entry, I was able to sit back and relax a little bit. It’s always nice to say things out loud and reflect upon them, assessing what’s true and what’s exaggerated in my own small mind. Heh. I usually find that I am in a much better situation than I initially think I am. At this moment, as my little angels are out in P.E., I am fondly pondering the last few days and thinking what a good week we have had. We’ve gotten a lot of work done. The kids have been working so hard. I’ve realized that this class is one of the best classes that I have had at working on seatwork independently. Yes, they talk constantly, but when I give them some story sheets to work on, they seem to get right to it. They do need some repeated directions, but for the most part, they do it on their own. Now if they can just learn to write better sentences. One step at a time.
It was a good end to a week, though. And now we get a long, long weekend! It’s good to be a teacher!
I’m flying home for Thanksgiving tomorrow. This is the first time that I will be home for Thanksgiving since I moved out here to California. A couple of weeks ago my mom called and told me that she and Dad would pay for my ticket. They figured that it would cost less to buy one ticket for me than two tickets for each of them to come out here to visit. And if I went home, then not only would my parents see me, but the rest of my family would see me. It would be better all the way around. So, they bought my ticket, and I am flying home.
I am actually really looking forward to the visit. It’s taken me a long time to feel that way again, but after a great trip back there this summer, I am finally beginning to think that things are back to normal. My family truly loves me, and although their disappointment in my past choices will never be forgotten, we are starting to move forward. The relationships that I have with my parents and sisters are healing, day be day.
Our Thanksgiving holiday is only through the weekend, but I am going to be staying in Wisconsin until Tuesday. Because of that, I am trying to prepare my lessons and things for the substitute teacher. One day is hard enough to prepare. It’s three times worse for preparing for two days! I’ve been staying at work, per the normal, until 7 P.M. each night making sure the room is in order for a sub. It’s as much for me as it is for the sub. I am just finding it more and more necessary to have less clutter around the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to get out of here by 4:30 or 5:00 P.M.
[The rest of this was written after the holiday since I forgot to send this home so that I could finish it. Heh.]
I didn’t leave school until 7:00 again. I thought I had myself so organized and prepared. I just kept finding things to do. Dang! I took some of the filing boxes (ones that you might find in an office as mail slots or something) that I had in the back of the room on Monday and emptied them out. I then stacked the two filers on my filing cabinet by my desk. I re-labeled them so that the six slots down the left side were Monday – Friday and the bottom slot was “Tests”. The slots down the right side were labeled for each subject – Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Activity Sheets. This way, if I am ever too sick to come in and prepare the room for the sub, she or he will have the necessary sheets for that week right there. It will also help me since I am good at setting one set of sheets here . . . one set over there and then not being able to find where I put them. I can be so scatterbrained sometimes.
After I finally got all the materials, books, worksheets, lessons in order, I was able to go home. It was late, and I still needed to clean my house. The school secretary lives across the street from me, and she usually is the one who will come in and take care of Lucky while I am out of town. Since she would be coming into my house, I wanted to make sure that it was really clean. No one wants others to see their mess, right? Heh. When I got home, I noticed that she had already been in to take care of him that night. She wasn’t sure if I was leaving Wednesday night or Thursday, and since I got home late, she thought maybe I had left. Not wanting to let Lucky sit inside without being able to go tinkle, she played the safety card and came over to let him out. I’m grateful that she has concern for him, but I was embarrassed that she saw my house as messy as it was! Yikes. Because I’ve been so busy with school, when I get home I completely veg. I will admit that I have let my house go a little.
I’m going to try to be better. Promise.
Another disadvantage to getting home much later is that I had to do my laundry later. My dryer doesn’t really work that well, so I have to hang dry my clean clothes. They weren’t quite dry by the morning, but I made do.
It’s good to be flying home!
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