i curse you, full moon!

Ugh. Today was more tiring than the usual A day. The kids were more whiny and childish than usual, especially my 11th graders. My 10th graders did pretty good, besides having a more-than-usual surly attitude not caused by the First Test of the Year. I'm glad it's over.
I'm taking Monday off due to a dentist appointment. It's my four class day (well, 3 classes and a Study Hall) and I've felt behind and exhausted. Well, I take that back. This week, I've felt like I'm finally catching up. My first bell did so good today during their test that I finally finished up the first batch of essays from all three 10th grade classes. Yesss! I love having only three 10th grade classes, it makes the essay grading so much easier. Tomorrow should help out in the whole organizing the filing cabinet (I have soooo much paper piled up there, whewww!). Monday will help in getting my head together about what to do next. It seemed like I had an endless to do list and everything that could happen to interrupt finishing things did happen. I hate that.

I had my third dance class this week, but Megan (Senior, haha) joined me! When I registered, I got a "buddy pass" (or whatever cutesy name they called it) that I could give to a friend for a free class. I gave it to Megan, because she said she always wanted to try a dance class. I told her that there was another girl who had no dance class experience in my class, so I invited her along. She did really well and everyone in the class and the teacher told her she should come back! I'm really enjoying having a class again, even if it's not quite as challenging as I expected. This will be useful so I can get my strength, endurance and technique back. Plus, the teacher modifies things for me so I can kinda do my own thing while those without experience learn something easier for them.

catching up

It's the end of the third week, and it's been a long one.
Monday was the Open House. Every school has one. Last year, I had a lot more parents. This year, I stay in town, buy dinner, come back to school, see 4 parents and then get home at 9. I don't usually say or think this about school-related things, but this was definitely a waste of my time.
This week, the honeymoon has ended. Two students skipped, so I wrote my first referral. I had to have a chat with a child I removed from the classroom into the hallway, as well. Ahh well. The school year has truly started.
Today was our first Early Release day. It was pretty awesome, but only because it was a "B" day, which means I only had 1 of my 2 classes since the last class of the day was removed. After the kids went home, we had our first meeting in our small groups for the professional development that will be going on year-round. It went well, we laughed so hard we almost cried, but didn't get much else done, hah! Oh well. No one has any clue what we're supposed to be doing, exactly.
I used two different strategies in the past two weeks to get students into pairs and groups. Both worked wonderfully! I had notecards with famous pairs on them and cut them in two. Each student gets one and must find their other half. That one worked great. I used the postcards (and thank you to everyone who sent some so far!!) to get my 11th graders into groups and that also worked wonderfully! It was so awesome to see. So, again, thanks to those of you who sent along postcards. They helped a lot!
My 10th graders essays are due tomorrow and Monday, which means no more talking about essays for a while! Yayyyy! My 11th graders have listened to two different parts of This American Life episodes and I'm using a curriculum built around This I Believe essays to help them learn how to write personal essays and they seem to be enjoying both! I was surprised how many kids actually liked the TAL episodes! It was very exciting.
This weekend is the first Ladies Night. I'm looking forward to it! That and sleeping in, reading my own book, getting ahead a little bit (the open house night totally ruined my routine! Plus, it made me really tired for Tuesday, uggh).
Some of you know already, but I've started going to a dance class again. It's a very small class, the other ladies don't have as much experience, but I am very out of shape. It's slow enough for me to really focus on getting my technique back as well as strength and endurance. So far, after two classes, I've enjoyed it. It's a nice addition to my week, it feels fantastic (and almost... comforting?) to be dancing again.
I'm going to try and get more in the habit of writing and blogging more. The last few weeks, I've been getting back in the habit of school: getting up early, getting things done quickly, following more of a routine, etc. But, at least I finally found pants that fit! I sucked it up and tried on about 14 different pairs of pants. Some of them were huge! Have I shrunk?! What happened? I guess that's better than the flipside...? Still, I hate trying on that many clothes and not finding anything.
One of the new people in our complex plays harmonica on their porch. Every now and then we'll hear harmonica floating along in the air. Right now it's "Home on the Range". It's pretty awesome.

praise jesus and launch the missles early!

I am incredibly excited.
First off, the past two nights have actually been fun! There was laughter! New people I've heard about and finally met! Exciting plans for the future! Pool, beer & wine, spoons, poker, nannies, lightbulbs, Star Wars naked jokes, the list goes on...
Okay, let me start making sense. Thursday night was supper club, the last one of the summer, but it was much larger than the summer ones. I finally met Leanne and Diana, who David told me I would like (and he was right!), I got to sit in a very comfortable papasan chair and play Loaded Questions with a huge group of people. There were lots of inside jokes created and brought up again.
Last night was the meet and greet they had for the first years. We went last year and it was awkward, but useful. This year was much better seeing as we actually knew people. I enjoyed staying in the corner, playing (really badly) pool with Megan and chatting. David invited people over for poker afterwards, which I didn't automatically groan at since I would actually have other people to talk with! Hurray! Actually, the ladies decided to go see The Nanny Diaries instead, since we were right around the corner from the movie theater. I read the book last summer and it wasn't horrible and neither was the movie. We almost took up a whole row, which was awesome. When we got back to the apartment, the guys were playing poker and chess in the dining/living room, so the ladies ended up in our computer room, playing Spoons (which I haven't played since 10th? 11th? grade? So it was tooootally fun!).
Basically, it was a great way to end the summer. Two nights of fun, meeting new, awesome people, making Facebook friends, making plans and ending up with a Ladies Night with some gorgeous, intelligent, hilarious women every 3rd Friday of the month.

I'm also excited because Monday starts all the school hullabaloo again. As much as I love sleeping in, not having to rush to finish my to do list and be incredibly tired at times, I also miss being a teacher. I miss my ladies at work, I miss my students, I miss exposing them to new & exciting literature-and-writing-related things. And the classroom! Oh, to have a classroom of my own! I can only imagine how that will change things. I will be able to find things and be better organized! And be able to set up things early instead of having to do it in 5 minutes! Oh, and the laughter. The belly-aching, teary-eyed laughter that comes with the school year. It's one of the best parts and it's what keeps us all sane. Hopefully, this year will be better (or at least on the same level as last year) and not really horrible.

Oh, and I'm going back to dance class. :)