:: p-dog ::

Usually I'm still so burned out on Sundays that I can barely stagger through grading. Today, though, rejuvinated from the break, I've been working pretty solidly since 9. Highlights of today include: Bryan making french toast for breakfast, George entering grades into my gradebook, and Doug figuring out how to generate progress reports for all my students. I get by with a little help from my friends...

So, Thanksgiving dinner turned out wonderfully. Unqualified successes included: the turkey (a daunting cooking task, but it turned out wonderfully in about 3 1/2 hours), the sweet potatoes, and the cherry pie Bryan made. I'm told the pumpkin was good, too, but I didn't try it. Slightly disappointing was the gravy (due to the fact that our turkey was gibletless and it was made with only the neck) and the dressing (a little soggy, and the oysters came cooked!). Even better was the post-dinner entertainment. We cracked open drinks and passed around my 25-page multiple choice tests to grade. I'd been putting them off since September. Good times.



I am definitely feeling somewhat better about this job now. Most of what had been making me miserable (75% of my energy going toward discipline rather than instruction) has improved. My 3rd/4th period class of eigth graders in particular has gotten better, while my 7th graders (formerly the dream class), has slumped a little. My 1st period class of "at risk" youth is still kicking my ass daily. Conventional discipline makes an impact on my other classes, but no one can figure out how to deal with this bunch. Short of a whistle and a whip.

But what is really pulling me through right now is the idea of Christmas break. Time to relax, a trip home, the warm fuzzy feeling of the holidays. Today I was iching to get a tree, but I'm too consumed in work to make it happen.

I've also really enjoyed having visitors this weekend. Almost all of my TFA friends have left town, so it was a very Texas Thanksgiving at our little apartment. Yesterday we went to the city (me, Bryan, Jeff, George, and Doug), and I also met up with Shannon for a few hours, who was there visiting friends. It's been great to see everyone, and has made me look forward even more to Christmas.

I must get back to lesson planning. I'm launching a very ambitious schedule for the three weeks leading up to Christmas. I feel like it's a short time where I can try some things out as I sprint full-speed for the finish line. Well, *a* finish line.

:: Leslie H - 3:09 PM - ::

I'm going to try to catch up this weekend. With everything--grading, bill-paying, enjoying life, work for class, lesson planning, this blog. Grading I've done fairly well at (picture thanksgiving guests, in their post-turkey stupor, sitting around the living room grading stacks of 25-page multiple choice tests). The rest, well, I've got a weekend left.

My Thanksgiving break got off to a mopey start, but it's perked up admirably. My diagnosis of the problem on Wednedsday/Thursday is that, having anticipated the short vacation for so many months, all I could think of when it arrived is that it would soon be over. I could jump ahead to Christmas, but before you know it, that's over, too, and I'm starting the long spring haul. Hell, it's only a matter of time till I'm dead. I was also a little bummed not to be with my family, where I'd spent every Thanksgiving to date.

But then I rewound a little from death, and reminded myself that if Thanksgiving break never ended, neither would this school year, and I'd be stuck here forever. (Really, I'm a bundle of fun these days. Full of sunshine.)

The rest of the break has been smashing. The yoga train is leaving, but I'm determined to post more this afternoon. And pictures. Tune in for pictures.

:: Leslie H - 9:27 AM - ::

The Corner

Not much time to write, but I wanted to post some kind of update. Things have gotten better, a little. I'm still swinging up and down wildly, with good days and bad, but the worst, I think, is over. More this weekend, I hope.

:: Leslie H - 8:54 PM - ::

This week was particularly bad, and my will to work was particularly low. After struggling with it for awhile, I came to the obvious conclusion: it's difficult to work hard for people who don't like you. Not that all of my students hate me, but the vicious ones are the faces that stand out. I may have more luck with motivation if I concentrate on the students who don't mutter profanities at me under their breath or throw things when my back is turned.

I brought a camera Halloween and took some pictures (the mostly-full collection posted on gallery). This one is of the crowd watching the costume contest at lunch. The ones in the middle are some of the 6th graders from my social studies class the first week of school. They still come visit.



In other news, the weather finally broke. While September was a little hotter than October had been, the temperature was just varying between 72-88, and it was uniformly sunny. The heat broke records during the last week of October. But starting Halloween, fall finally arrived. There had been a few hints it was coming--the stray falling leaf, and of course the pumpkin patches, but I began to fear the Christmas commercials would start while it was still beach weather. Finally, though, patchy clouds and highs in the low 60s. Turtle-neck weather. Makes me happy.

Still hasn't *rained* though.

:: Leslie H - 7:44 PM - ::