Speed bumps on the road to recovery...

I'm surprised that it's been so long since I last blogged. The school year is three weeks into swing and my classes are going well and my students are very nice even if they are not at all interested or curious about social studies. The first week or so I would take naps during lunch but I started trying to forgo the naps in favor of having lunch. Eating or sleeping... a difficult choice.

I have completed my first unit with both of levels of American Studies and assessments are complete. Whoa nelly--that was quite an eye opener. The feedback from students was helpful but mostly they have no interest whatsoever in history and really can't see the point. I explain the connections to current events but they still couldn't care less... literally couldn't care less. How sad. No interest in the outside world, no interest in why things happen the way they happen, no interest in connecting life in Northern Maine with life in ... anywhere but here. I can only be so charming, cute and interesting... ha ha ha...

So, the first full week of school I was completely exhausted by Friday so I came home early; just a side note that every teacher on earth is exhausted the first week of school. The second week I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and was not at school that day, but was unable to rest too much because of the procedure which caused some rather severe discomfort. And this third week I started getting a cold and took Friday off. One year ago I was afraid of violence at school--this year I am afraid of germs. Funny how the fear changed so radically. But the sneezing and coughing causes such extreme pain in my chest that I can't even stand up straight for a few minutes... not really able to teach while hunched over.

I'm hoping that this long weekend will allow me enough time to get healthy again, get rid of this peskly cold. One of the kids sneezed a-l-l over me and I took a few minutes to discuss sanitary procedures for sneezing and coughing--basically COVER YOUR DAMN MOUTH! Yuck. I'm sure that's how I got infected. It was wet and gross. Cover cover cover!!!!

The new grade book program has so many glitches that no one can figure out how to print rank sheets or class rosters but I am not stressing about that one bit. We're all in that boat. The administration needs to get us to dry land. I can only do what I can do... and only in the time I can do it, so I really have let go of any angst about the grade thing. Whatever. There are a couple of teachers who have also adopted the whatever philosophy and we just kind of watch some of the others get incredibly worked up over it, shrug and let it go. It'll get fixed eventually. I can't fix it. The end.

Other than the health issues, I have been having a lot of fun. I really have some funny kids, and they are nice to each other. Interesting mixes of kids, some huge classes, and some challenging needs in some of the students. This year I have two very special needs, extremely low ability students, which poses some interesting problems. I think I'm supplementing their regular work in a way that they can get the basics. And I have some students with strange medical problems, causing them to miss blocks of days and so forth. I would suggest they get tutoring, but... who knows. So much happens in the classroom that when someone's not there it just can't be recreated. Ah well...

This is the official last weekend of summer. Labor Day Weekend. Looking out the window, the trees are already changing and there has been a nip in the air for a couple of weeks. I hate to say goodbye to summer when it feels like I'm just getting my strength back enough to enjoy it. And autumn is early... maybe we'll get one of the gorgeous Indian Summers that stretch into late-October. I've noticed too how dark it is by seven o'clock in the evening. I miss sitting on the porch reading until nine.

Ah well... time moves on and maybe this is as good as it gets.