Saturday, August 20, 2005

Whew! To the 1st Week

I feel like I should be belting out the "Love Story" song .... "Where do I begin ....hmmm hmmm hmmm HMMM hmmm...." (except the cats would be howling and there would be boots and rotten tomatoes thrown).

I have now just officially finished my first week of school, and shockingly enough I'M TIRED. In fact I am so tired that I kept yawning (quietly) in yoga class after school. I swear if she had turned out the lights and had a soothing shavasana, I would have been one of those people that started snoring.

First week was good, but I don't have my timing groove yet. I have 3 math preps and all week I was scrambling to finish up 1st week craziness in addition to figuring out the pacing for my "regular" class and putting out my best effort for my AP Calculus class and so on and on and on. So I've been good about going to bed at 10pm, but then that whacky 3:30am ... 4:00am eyes-wide-open thing started happening. Then I figured that since I was up, I could find "pockets of time" to finish up lesson plans and correct papers and cut and paste for assignments and such. ... But enough complaining.

I love my classes. In fact there are some students that I'll have now had for 3 years, and they're so cute and happy. Who says teenagers are surly and ill-mannered? ... Okay, I run into some of those. But my heart is warmed by all the hugs and hellos I've been getting. ... Now I'm CHOOSING to interpret the following in a "good" way, not an "oh my god you look old" way.

An aside first. All summer I didn't wear makeup, and I sort of got used to it, and then when I put some on during our 1st inservice day, it felt so fake and gloppy and wrong. Now we're just talking mascara and eyeliner here. So then I started thinking about going all year without wearing it. Sure, I look okay now, what with my piddly little tan, but talk to me during my pasty white days come October. Anyhow. I also stopped wearing my glasses ... my eye sight is not that bad, and I can make do. It's been so nice just to dress up for school and then not have to "do" makeup (especially now since I'm exercising at 5:30am .... BFL) and am super sweaty even AFTER my shower .... that I sometimes have to wait to get dressed (TMI, sorry) until I cool down.

So. Today (Friday) between my last 2 classes of the day, one of my former students who I had for 2 years, but don't have this year, comes to say hi. "Can I give you a hug miss?". Well, sure ... I ask her what that's all about, and she said that "everyone" was mentioning how I looked all tired and stressed out and just wasn't myself and she was worried about me and didn't want me to die. .... Okay I'm only 40 here. Do I look THAT crappy without the makeup? Was she just being genuinely concerned? Or was that some subtle (?) hint to get with the program and stop scaring the kiddies and slap on that face paint already? I'll have to sleep on it (a LOT) this weekend.

Other than that, my regular class .... hmmmm ... I have to figure out what will work with them. They seem to be of a wide range of abilities and attitudes and I know it's only been 4 days with them, but I don't want to lose them. It's a regular precalculus class, and they don't even need it for graduation, so more power to them for signing up. I will keep having to adjust until I figure out what amount of examples will work and make them comfortable enough to do homework. They are working in class, but I'm sensing that I'm going at the wrong pace ... I'll figure it out.

Okay, bla bla bla. Get to bed already, you old hag.

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