Catching Up

Things have been busy around here.  First, I had an upper respiratory infection that I had to go to the doctor for last week.  Then it appeared as though it wasn’t going to go away.  In fact, yesterday I emailed my mom to ask what it meant that mucus was coming out of my eye every time I blew my nose.  I woke up today for the first time in nearly two weeks with no cough and no stuffy nose.  So I’m hoping that means I’m getting better.

On top of that, last week was finals week, and this week is the start of a new trimester.  I’ve been busy doing a lot of planning and lesson creation.  The other ninth grade teacher and I hammered out our syllabus for the rest of the year yesterday, and I started to plow through some of the lessons and handouts.  I think I’m going to grammar-land today :)  And I get observed this morning at school.  And I’m just trying to get to know the feel of my new classes.  And I keep finding myself going back to my Purdue Ed roots—digging through old file folders looking for lesson ideas….because I would rather teach like I was taught to teach than to teach like I was taught.  I don’t know if that makes sense.  I want to teach along the lines of the reform movement, to make my kids responsible for their work and engaged, not to teach from worksheets. 

I also took on a lot of responsibility for a grant project that is due at the end of April.  So I have a lot of compiling and writing to do over the next few weeks in order to prepare to present to the state representative.

Then there is just normal busy-ness—going to the gym, getting groceries, running errands, making dinner, etc.  And I was gone last weekend for an AWESOME weekend in WL with my favorite former roommates.  And all that adds up to: I just haven’t even been around a whole lot lately.

I do remember that I was supposed to post baby shower decorations from the shower I co-hosted three weeks ago—so here they are :)

The Tables