November 7, 2009

note to self: do not say at school until the custodians close the building EVER AGAIN

This has been QUITE the week!!!  Tuesday Mrs. J and I stayed EMBARRASSINGLY late at school...so late, I don't even want to say what time I made it home.  There are always just so many things to do.  I stayed at school forever and was literally constantly working, but did not even get ahead.  I feel like so much of the time I am just barely staying above water.  This is NOT what I'm used to--I am a planner big time and like being on top of things.  So it's a little unnerving for me to feel disorganized.  Anyways, after that marathon and a half day, Wednesday felt even worse: full day at school, autism therapy, then back to school for celebrate reading and writing night.  Thankfully, my team would not allow me to stay after that and continue working.  One even threatened to pull me out by my hair if I tried to stay. :)  I believe she would, too...  Anyways, it's been a long week.  You'd think if I put in that many hours, I'd have the next MONTH of school planned.  But I feel like so much of my time is just spent staying organized.  So many papers being turned in all the time, I've started just recycling the morning work and random hw pages. It's not even worth the time to check some of it.

Well, after that incredibly long week of early mornings and late nights, by yesterday, I had about lost my mind.  I was crabby all day and very sarcastic with my kids.  And, by the afternoon, I wasn't even feeling like myself.  I think I literally was just completely overworked.  I'm going to try not to put in another week like that again, because it just really screwed me up.  This weekend, I am planning on having some fun to recover.  However, I also want to get a lot of work done this weekend so I'm not left with it next week. catch 22 really.

Hmm what else to update on...well, my challenging student's behavior has been improving.  He still goes off about things and can be disruptive in class, but he's made a big improvement.  I also find that when I am well-rested and calm in general, I can handle him so much more easily.  I know we are headed in the right direction, though. 

I started a unit in science about water on Earth and did a cool experiment about density of salt and fresh water.  I'm hoping to pull some other experiments and activities from Project WET, and am excited about actually teaching my favorite subject.  finally.  I also had this epiphany last night and decided to start a writing unit on Heroes this week.  I'd been planning on starting an expository essay and didn't really know how to approach it in terms of topic.  So I settled on heroes.  I think I'm going to connect it to Veterans Day initially, then we'll right about heroes we know personally for the essay.  Finally, as a social studies tie-in, because god knows I don't teach it enough, maybe we'll do a little research of heroes in history.  Anyways, I still have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I like when I get excited about planning things.  So often school just feels hard or stressful or frustrating that I really need some of these little happy things to keep me going.

Anyways, here's just one small thing that made me smile last night:  I was grading my math quizzes while watching Say Yes to the Dress (for someone who has anything but weddings on the brain, I'm not sure why I even like that show!), and the quiz was on angles.  I had them label points on the angles and they could choose which letters to use.  5th graders are hilarious.  I loved seeing the different words they would make with them: RAT, DOG, OMG, BED, CAT, their initials, etc.  I know that's just a tiny little thing, but it reminded me that, yeah, they drive me crazy, but they really are still kids and they really are cute sometimes.  (I especially liked the OMG). 

Well, in the spirit of productivity, I think I'm going to get out of bed and start my day...

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