It is my last Sunday night before I head back to face the school year. Typically I love Sundays because it's usually a low key day of church and football in the fall. With The Little Princess in our world now, not sure how much football will be able to be enjoyed, but hey, it will still be on simply because it's American and I'm all over that part of America. But I digress....
Sunday's also are strange evenings for me. About 3 PM my body starts to switch gears from the laid back, sucking down a diet coke with the Broncos playing in the background to sudden panic. Not much different than the students who wait until 10 PM on Sunday to start their homework; however, the difference is if I'm not ready, life for me is much more miserable than it is for them, with "them" being my students. This is also the day we, as a family, plan for the week ahead. The Big Princess lays out her week's worth of clothes after we glance at the weather forecast, which typically means diddly in the end, but we try. I notice she also tenses up a bit as we both know, in a few short hours, that stinking alarm will scream at us and our week will begin similar to the start of the Kentucky Derby with less mud.
Somehow, I want to change that. I want to take back my Sundays and my stress level by feeling prepared and confident. When I taught Humanities, a semester class that repeated and a subject that had virtually no homework and simply no importance attached to it regarding "The Tests," Sundays were awesome! I knew I had nothing to correct and I knew that in the morning, I would be teaching a topic I adored and was more than ready for. Yes, I changed things up in Humanities all the time, but it was down to a science and it was also a class where the kids definitely worked harder than I did. I don't think that's possible in Language Arts. There's so many requirements placed upon us by the district and so much rides on our test scores that I can't imagine figuring out ways to make them work harder than me without correcting until my eyes bleed. So, I have a goal. Less work me, more work them, less correcting me, more writing them. How in the world this is going to work beats me, but what is life without a challenge?
Family Update: It rained tonight. AGAIN. No water in the basement so far. The Little Princess did not have any hives today. The Big Princess made me so proud of her yet once again, but I'll save that for the next blog.....maybe even with pictures.
I hear football season is longer now. :O)
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