Beginning of Year Craziness

        Today was an absolutely beautiful day. It was a chilly fall day ... 60 degree weather, foggy, cool and damp ... beautiful. I came home from work, my hubby was just starting laundry (amazing all on it's own!), we took the dog for a walk, and then came home and had waffles and eggs for dinner.

        And I think I felt like a regular person for the first time in WEEKS. Like since school started. Don't get me wrong, after dinner I still graded a stack of papers and spent an hour working on my Grad class homework ... BUT, for that brief moment (and this one!) I got to remember what it is like to have a life outside of school. And it was marvelous! ha!

        Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING every minute of school ... well, okay, almost every minute. There have been a couple moments I could have done without, but that is to be expected when you hang out with 9 year olds all day! :). Seriously, over all this year is great. My homeroom is fantastic, each of my classes is an adventure all it's own, my kids are great, my colleagues are wonderful, and I get to wake up and go do what I love every day.

        There have been a ... few ... moments our room has been full of craziness, a couple of times my co-teacher and I have had to just look at each other and laugh, one lesson I stopped completely - reworked - and tried again the next day, and a time or two I was pretty sure we weren't getting anywhere ... but guess what, we WERE getting somewhere.

         And there are moments that prove it ... like today we started guided reading and the kids were marvelous. And when the kids got excited at the news that all their prewriting strategies have payed off and then get to start actually drafting tomorrow. AND today we got to bring out "Skelly" the skeleton! I brought him out for my two ELA classes, but my homeroom was so excited we decided to study him as well! So, we decided to do some research on skeletons and the human body ourselves :).

This is my homeroom filling out KWL charts about Skelly the skeleton -- they are excited to learn more about him!

        But, no matter how much I love my job, 4 weeks of 10 hour days (7-5) + 2 or 3 hours in at school each weekend was = one stressed out me ... which isn't fun for anyone involved (including my students! and my poor husband!). So, today it was nice to "get away" for a bit, take a deep breath, and remember that this "beginning of the year craziness" really doesn't last forever =).