WitL 2012 - Friday

The main story of the day is that Jason love his job as much as I do. I tip-toed into his classroom during class to take some photos. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the camera, but as usual, as soon as I entered the room, I could sense the happy, upbeat attitude of his classroom. He teaches all A.P. classes this year. Just recently, he applied for the Rotary Excellence in Teaching award. Part of his application shows graphs of the improvement in both the A.P. Lit and A.P. Language scores after he started teaching them. Just one bit of evidence of his excellence as a teacher.

The kids had good days. Roz got to wear PJs to school - a celebration of successfully completing their CRTs. We also found out Roz's friend is visiting her grandma - who lives near us - for a while. She is excited to have someone to go play with. Our neighborhood isn't like mine as a child. Most of the houses on my street had young kids, and we would spend every evening outside playing with one another. There are almost no kids on our block, so having someone she can go play with on a moment's notice is a pretty splendid change of pace.

For internship hours, I helped supervise the senior-senior prom. Okay, honestly, I wasn't needed, but the activities director was kind enough to let me hang out with her and see what she does at these kind of things. The senior-senior prom is an event they hold the day before prom. Since the gym is decorated so beautifully, they hold a free dance for local seniors the night before. The kids who helped put together the prom ballroom host the event. I loved being there. The senior citizens who attended had a great time dancing, and I loved seeing them teach the high school students how to dance - everything from swing dancing to line dancing. It was a happy event all around.

Morning!

Climbing into bed with mama is nice.

Let's go.

Bye, Dad.

Jason teaching. Not the best picture, but he was getting irritated with me.

I had to include this silly picture of my students. They make me laugh.

The lunchroom where Jason and I eat everyday with colleagues.

Evidence of spring - seed pods on the Maple tree.

Roz, her friend, and the neighbor boys.

Showing off the necklace he got from the treasure box at school.

His bling.

Feeding the dogs.

The gym was completely transformed for the prom.

Case in point. Does this look like a school gym?

More Old Hollywood decor.

Tearing it up - a couple dances at the senior-senior prom.

The chandeliers.

WitL 2012 - Thursday

I am following along with Ali Edward's week-in-the-life project.

Today was a long day at work. I stayed late, finishing notes from a meeting and discussing things with my department chair and friend Jeff. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the gym as I had planned. Since this weekend will be largely devoted to wracking up internship hours, I don't know if I will have time work out then either. This is the story of my week - overcommitment means little time to care for myself. This is a lesson that life has tried to teach me many times, and here I am - still working too much. 

 

Today I felt the toll. My stomach is nauseous. After spending an hour and a half working on my last paper for this class, I took a moment to check its length. It's 23 pages and still in progress. That and two other weekly papers, plus my internship hours - the frantic nervousness is beginning to make sense. But enough about my over-committing.

Rosalind is having great fun with no homework this week. She had a piano lesson today, but outside of that and some small chores, she had a lot of free time, which is not normal. Sawyer has been very tired in the afternoons. Since he got up at 5:15 this morning, I suspect he will be tired tonight.

 

Saying good morning

Getting up at 5:15 and taking a shower - my early bird

Waiting to go

Getting the kids out the door and holding Rosalind's music bag

Not helping with the dishes

Posing

Listening to the 80s station on Sirius

Arriving home from the store

Setting the table - for people with really long arms

Being happy about the TinTin book that arrived from Amazon today

Assessing my store items - tea for the British tea tomorrow in class, cream and blueberry muffin mix because it sounded good to my upset stomach

Washing hands before dinner

Not washing hands before dinner

Reading TinTin

Making blueberry muffins

Putting batter mix into the bowl and on the counter and even a little on the floor

Laying out ingredients

Leaving some berry juice to flavor the muffins

Stirring

Reading together

Chasing

Writing a paper on the achievement gap

WitL - Day 3 - 2012

Ready for school, Dad.

Bella and a random sock and a dog town minus its stuffing. This is our house these days.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a boy dressed funky for prom week!

As is tradition for prom king and queen candidates, the two in the middle had been shanghaied. Yes, he is wearing a shirt, it's just a soft rose color that makes it look like he isn't.

I love my job!

Checking out the mini TinTin frame that came in the dog food bag.

Playing with her best friend.

I thought she was sniffing the flowers, but when she lifted her head, she had a flower in her mouth.

My Chinese visa arrived today! Have visa, will travel.

Lovely dog - when she isn't chewing up my shoes or my scrapbooks.

We always eat dinner together.

Someone was grumpy and didn't want to smile for the camera.

After-dinner chores

Reading before bed.

Also reading before bed.

More reading before bed.

The main story of today is that teaching seniors this time of year is both challenging (senioritis sets in once their portfolios are turned in) and fun (it's prom week, and their laid back attitude means we laugh a lot in class). If I could handle five classes of senior project research papers, I would teach all seniors every year.

I got my hair cut after school. When I got home, Jason and I spent the next hour doing chores while the kids played. Jason cooked dinner, got the kids' lunches ready, and did the dishes. I vacuumed (two almost-full-grown dogs (one of which is a golden retriever) means lots of fur) and got a load of laundry going. Sawyer was having a rough evening. He must have been tired because he whined and complained a lot.

After dinner, the kids showered while Jason had some quiet time in his den and I did homework for my two master's classes. One of my classes will be done in a week, and I couldn't be more relieved. I am not enjoying the class at all; in fact, it's my least favorite of all the classes so far. On the other hand, the other class - my internship class - is awesome: the professor couldn't be more wonderful, couldn't be more engaging. We are skyping to do our group work and some of our discussions. It makes a big difference to be able to have a face-to-face discussion with someone rather than reading a typed name on a screen.

Roz has had a good week. Since she had her recital Monday, we let her take a break from practicing the piano, and since she has CRTs at school, she hasn't had homework. This means more free time than usual.

I can't help but think today about how grateful I am for everything in my life - my family, my friends, my sangha, my job, my students, my administrators, my new van. I don't always feel this appreciative of everything, but today I do.

Song of the day: "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West - It played on my Pandora station while I was uploading photos.