sitting down for a second

I kept telling myself I should update. To be honest, I haven't felt like it. March was a busy month, and February before that was a lazy month, which means that I was behind in taking care of a few things. Recently, I've had to take care of lots of things around the house, appointments to make, applications to send out, apartments to try and see. To do lists all over the place!
After a month of being incredibly social, I've been enjoying time by myself, trying to get through the 2 books I'm reading right now. Even though I usually dislike being so busy that I don't really have a moment to myself, I really enjoyed March. Seeing Natalie and Amanda gave me the extra boost I needed. Before seeing them, I was really down in the dumps, for numerous reasons. It was so incredibly nice to get to sit and talk with them for a while, to be comfortable and laugh with someone that you've known for longer than a few months or a year. It brings a feeling of "normal" into what's been a completely new environment. In the summer, we're supposed to see a few more friends (one of which I'm going to keep trying to convince to move to Richmond). It will be fantastic to see them in our area, as we're about to move to a new city again.

Beyond all that personal stuff, I had my 11th graders writing porfolios to get though, a play to finish teaching (and I'll have to grade projects on that soon), a novel to start/finish teaching (they're still loving it! YES!), and units and tests to get ready for. My 10th graders have their research paper coming up, which is always such an incredible joy to do. My 11th graders have a project on their novel, a play and their last English SOL coming up in the next 3 weeks. Plus, their ring dance is Friday and that will be my first time chaperoning a dance.
There have been amazing changes in my students. A few kids I've been working on all year have become more focused and started coming to class more often. One of them even stuck up for me when some kid (not even one of my students!) gave me sass when I asked him to watch his language for the nth time. One student who never considered college may go onto duel enroll in high school and community college classes. That is so exciting. One student, Tiffany, recently gave birth to a 9lb little boy named Zane. Cody is due any minute now to have her little girl Emmaline. I gave her 2 of my favorite books. This led Ava, Cody and I to talk about how young they should start reading to their kids and how it affects them in school later on. Ava finally returned after giving birth to her son only to have to take more time out because he got sick. He's okay now and she's shown up for 2 days in a row. I'm so proud of all of them.
We've started two countdowns on my board: days until school ends and days until the reading SOL. Both are exciting to see get lower and lower, but also bum us out a bit. I've been saying to anyone who brings it up that I'm not thinking about it until the end of May.

BTW, if you didn't see "Meeting David Wilson" on MSNBC, try and check it out. It was amazing.