It’s Wednesday, but I keep thinking it’s Thursday. Yesterday, I kept thinking it was Wednesday. I’m just perpetually a day ahead, I guess.
School let out early on Friday, but my mentor invited me to lunch and then insisted on paying for it. It was a really nice time, and even nicer since the Hubby was able to join us. By the time we were done with lunching, it was the normal time for school to let out, so I never got the benefit of being able to leave early for a change. Except for a free lunch with awesome people. 🙂 After lunch, the Hubs and I went shopping, couldn’t find what we wanted, and came home. I headed straight to the computer and just ordered the stuff we’d been looking for. I swear, every year, more and more of my shopping is done on-line. If I could reasonably get groceries that way…
I went to bed early Friday and slept late Saturday. I had no plans, so I felt absolutely no guilt for a couple of extra hours of sleep. Around 2pm, I realized that I was feeling really sleepy, so I laid down and took a two-hour nap. I still was able to go back to bed before midnight that night. I got up late (for me) Sunday, showered, dressed, grabbed the Kiddo and headed to Wal-Mart. We needed groceries, wrapping paper, a few gift items. Really just a mish-mash of various things. I’d started running out of almost all of my make-up during the last two weeks of school, so I took the opportunity to get replacements. I’d been congested and run-down feeling, so I also had to pick up a good decongestant. The Kiddo had Christmas money he’d been given to spend on his parents, and he needed to find something to spend it on.
Anyway, we spent about 45 minutes there, picking up the various and sundry things we needed, and then headed home whereupon I decided that we were being entirely too Scrooge-like and needed a tree. I’ve sworn off trees for the past few years. My reasons are as sundry as my shopping list had been: Religious issues/disagreements with the holiday, cats deciding to become “one” with the ornamentation, “glittery” litter boxes. This year, though, we’ve all been a bit depressed in this house, and the holiday season has just made it worse. We’re short on money, big news. Who isn’t? My parents were feeling incredibly guilty that they hadn’t been able to get any of their grandchildren birthday gifts, much less be able to buy Christmas gifts for them. The Hubby and I have been resolved for the past few years to only focus our paltry gift budget on the one person that really matters: our child. But it’s been a little depressing. We all love each other and would like to get each other something small, but we haven’t been able to for about four years now.
Well, I’d had enough with the long faces. If we’re going to recognize this idiotic holiday at all, we need to refocus on what it’s supposed to mean. It’s a remembrance of the birth of Christ! We should be rejoicing in the things we DO have, not in what we CAN’T GET! So, to remind everyone of the holiday season, I went to the dollar store, spent less than 25 dollars, and got a small 3-foot tree, along with lights and ornaments for it. It’s so small that it can sit on the kitchen table, and the cats aren’t tempted to climb in it. The ornaments are hung with wire hooks that we clamped to the branch. So, even if the kitties knock over the tree trying to play with it, we won’t have ornaments all over the house. It’s simple. It’s tacky. And as soon as I plugged it in, everyone got over their bah-humbugs and started smiling again. The only question the men had was, “Is this it? Are you sure you’re not going to ask us to hang crap on the outside of the house?” Good grief, no! The little, white-trash tree on the kitchen table is just fine, thanks.
So, that was Sunday. A trip to Wally World, then a trip to the Dollar General, and that was enough for me. Monday, I wandered around the house aimlessly. I’d wanted to get my haircut, but the salon is closed on Mondays, and I’d forgotten. Finally, around 2:30, I put shoes on and headed to the library in Baytown. Picked up a couple of Stephen Kings I’d never heard of, the first four Harry Potter books, and the complete and unabridged collection of Douglass Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It contains the six books that he considers part of the story line. I am loving the very idea of this book so much that I’m very tempted to find it on-line and buy it. Except I can’t afford to buy books right now, which is why I checked them out from the library. Heh. I started and finished Harry Potter Year 1, and began Year 2. I guess I was just in the mood.
Tuesday, yesterday, I finally did get my hair cut. I don’t think the guy cut it short enough, really, but I’m going to live with it at least until after Christmas, then I’ll decide if I want to go back to get more hacked off. Once I got home, I started baking cookies. For three hours I baked. Eighteen dozen in all. Why? I don’t know. I’ve just gotten into the habit of baking a ton of cookies over winter holiday. I’ve been doing it since I went back to college, and I guess I feel the need to continue this strange tradition now that I’m working (but still have this time off). I’m not sure why I think five people need 216 cookies. In between putting trays of cookies into the oven, pulling them out and reloading the tray, I managed to finish Harry Potter Year 2, and started Year 3. I’m almost done with it and will start Year 4 some time tonight. When I finish it, I will have run myself out of Harry Potter books and will be left with Stephen King and Douglass Adams. Not a bad prospect, if you ask me.
Today, I’m refusing to leave the house, and I’m baking sausage and cheese kolaches. The bread dough is currently laid out in the kitchen, covered, and I’m waiting for it to defrost and begin to rise so that I can stuff the sausages in them. I feel very relaxed about it all, really. The important stuff I ordered on-line has almost all come in (there’s one package due tomorrow that I really must have before Friday). I’m still waiting on three total packages, but I have a feeling it’ll be next week before I see two of them. I’m okay with that. It’s what I get for waiting until a week before Christmas to place orders.
Throughout this break, I have a few small things I need to do that are work-related. I have to build a gradebook that I can print and turn in at the end of the year. I can print out the one from the school’s program, but it only gives me my current roster of students, which is not the roster I began with in August. Two of my classes have changed dramatically in the students that are in them. I need a gradebook that reflects who was in my class each six weeks. Thankfully, I know enough about Excel to be able to put together something that looks good. And, I’ll only need to do this for the first semester. Now that I know that I’m going to be asked for a paper version of my grades (why?!? SO SO dumb!), I can print out my grades at the end of each week and just keep them in a file. There won’t be a need to build a spreadsheet for the second semester. I don’t want to keep grades in more than one place, anyway. Once upon a time, I thought that I would keep an actual old-school gradebook, and I even bought one last summer from the teacher’s supply store, but I found that to be more of a pain in the ass than I needed. Yes, I know that servers crash and grades are obliterated this way. Don’t care. I’ll be printing them out weekly from now on, so the most I’ll have lost is a week of grades. And considering how many assignments we do each grading period, if I never get those grades back, we’ll still be okay.
Another task I need to do over this holiday is to read two chapters in a book one of my mentors gave me, and write something about those chapters. This mentor is one given me by the district, but she’s an administrative mentor, so I never see her. I’m not really sure what function she serves, but I know that if I were unable to get information I needed from my school mentor, I’d be able to contact this administrative mentor to get some answers, or at least to get some heads rolling for not assisting a new teacher the way they ought to be. I have the envelope with the book and the assignment in it on my desk. It’s staring up at me, reminding me that I’ve had it for almost two months now and haven’t touched it. And maybe, just maybe in this glut of reading I’m doing, I should include this book as part of it.
The last thing I need to do (and the last thing I want to do, honestly) is to lesson plan. I really ought to plan the first couple of weeks back, just so that I’m a little ahead. I need to work out my worksheet keys, as well. And, I’m changing some of my classroom policy, and I’m going to need the parents to help me out with supplies. All the students are going to start carrying a binder for math. I’m really tired of handing back papers and having the kids take one glance at it and then dump it in the garbage. Their parents never see their work! Convenient for a kid who regularly turns in crap, but it’s not communicating with the parents very well. So, I’ve decided to complicate my job for the next three grading periods, and require my students to start carrying a three-ring binder with three dividers: warm-ups, classwork/homework, and tests. And I’m giving a notebook test at the end of the grading period. The first week of the next grading period, I will let the kids know what they can and can’t throw away. I’ve already warned the kids that I’m doing this, and I haven’t gotten a “hurrah” about it yet. And, I’m positive that some kids will never bring in a binder and/or dividers, so I’m going to have to buy some to sell back to them. (But not until I’ve called home about it!) In order for me to give a test over their binders, though, I’m going to have to keep one too. I’ll call it the “model” binder and the kids will be able to ask for it during tutoring so they can double-check to make sure they have everything they’re supposed to. It’s going to take more work on my part, but I’m hoping the kids benefit from it and they’re able to keep better organized for next year. Before school starts back up, I need to compose a letter to my parents, outlining what policies I’m changing, how, and why, and letting them know what they need to send to school with their child. It shouldn’t take me long to do, but I need to get straight in my head exactly what the kids need.
Ah well, it’ll all come together eventually. Gotta go check the bread! Ciao!
God's Weigh 