Thursday, March 03, 2005

A midweek/midwinter break

How nice it was for the last couple of days to attend an SAT prep workshop and have a wee bit of a break from teaching. I apparently have gotten over my control freak behavior of HAVING to be at school all the time because it'll just be utter mayhem in my class and they won't learn and things could go wrong and ...... In fact, in my 8 years of teaching, before last year, the only times I was absent was for workshops. Last year I had a family emergency, so I was out an additional 3 days of the year. Now I'm like, eh, the break will be good for the kids and for me. I still don't think I'll ever take a sick day or mental health day .... mostly because I like my record (freak) and also because it seems that once you take it the day will probably go by quickly and maybe you'll feel robbed that it should have been much more exciting or fulfilling than it probably ends up being. ..... Also, when I feel in need of such a mental health vacation, I plan to leave school early on that day (translation: before 6 pm which is 1.75 hours after school gets out) and do something fun just for myself. That usually sustains me through the day .... the anticipation of the event and the event itself.

These last 2 days at the workshop have been great because:
1. We learned valuable things that I think will be immediately put to good use.
2. I got to go out to lunch 2 (2!) days in a row.
3. And breakfast :)
4. I had more of a chance to talk with a coworker and we had great conversations.
5. I met another colleague that I'd probably never have a chance to meet.
6. We got out of the workshop early both days, so I beat traffic and felt decadent.
7. We visited another H.S. and I saw how cool ours was (biased, totally)

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