The Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Women

Okay, so my good intentions lasted about as long as an ice cube tossed into the hot tub. I've been crazy busy. Here's a recap:

Midyear exams --- Teach, review, create, administer, correct and assess, upload grades, return and discuss. Times 5. The seniors did surprisingly well, all but one of them passing easily. (The one dud was the gal who started halfway through the semester and who might appear in class twice a week.) Creative writing students who followed directions did well. Honors sophomores' performances were disappointing, especially regarding their essays, so we're working on beefing those up ASAP. Half of the Skills kids passed, and half didn't, even being allowed to use a sizable collection of notes and review sheets. If I had to predict, I'd say those exams foretell who will pass for the year, but in the name of avoiding self-fulfilling prophecies, we'll all pretend I didn't say that.

Collaborative Action Research --- That's the name of the college course I'm currently taking. We don't actually conduct the research because it would have to be sanctioned by a university, and our local university doesn't do that, but we learn the process. That way we can replicate it locally if our school or district wants to make some changes based on data that come from our own practices. Each session we have to make a presentation, either to the group as a whole or to a sub-group, and next week - our final session - we have to make a PowerPoint presentation of the research we've found and gathered on an essential question we've developed. I'm getting nervous because I can't quite pin down the exact question I want to use as the basis of this project. I'll figure it out over this weekend. More on the subject later.

Teaching five classes of high school students --- That's been my job for years, but this year the gods have seen fit to punish me with an extremely difficult group among the other four relatively normal ones. And now another student whose skills are weaker than the others in the class has been added to the mix. On two of the four days he's been with me, he's been sent out of class to the office, once for refusing to stop taunting other students and profanity, and once for taking out and using a cellphone in class. I know I'm aging more quickly this year because I have to spend so much energy preparing for, managing, and recovering from this class, and that makes me unhappy. Two steps forward, three steps back is the way it feels most days, and I've gained the deep sympathy of other teachers of freshmen (who had some of these yahoos last year) and sophomores (who had some of these yahoos last year). I need to sit down with the principal to have a face to face conversation with him about the repercussions of some "bargains" he's made on behalf of a few of these children.

Visitors --- I love to host friends in my home and share our place with them, especially ones who've played host to me. My preference is that they visit in the summer or at times when school obligations are lighter, but that timing isn't always possible. This time around, I (we) played host to my friend Brick from Belgium and his wife, Mieja, who arrived at the bus terminal in a city half an hour south of us on the afternoon of my birthday, January 24. They'd taken a bus from NYC where they'd been visiting his sister, and I chauffeured them to our house to unpack and then join us for dinner out. The restaurant was his favorite two years ago when he visited, and we had a lovely dinner. My dear husband forgot his wallet (as he's done enough to make me sure of bringing my own finances any time we go out), so I ended up paying for my own birthday dinner party. That became a running joke for the week they were here. While my spouse and I conducted our usual teacher lives, they spent their days snowshoeing, using the spa, driving around the area visiting some of the places he'd seen on his last visit, conducting two acting workshops at the school, and keeping the wood stove going. Of the remaining dinners, two were made by me, and the rest were prepared by them. They love to cook together, so what was a treat for them was also a delight for us. We ate very well, and we have plastic tubs and containers of scrumptious leftovers. Since they were fairly independent, their presence for so many days was very little burden. Of course some routines, like walking around in our underwear or keeping the bedroom door open at night, go by the wayside, but we survived. Yesterday I woke at 5:30 and left the house just after 6 a.m. to bring them back to the bus station for their trip to Logan Airport, final destination: Houston. We made the station with about 5 minutes to spare, hugged our goodbyes, and after I saw the bus depart for the southbound interstate exit, I had plenty of time to drive northward to school and the final day of a crazy week.

Oh...didn't I mention returning midyear exams on Monday? Or the snow day on Wednesday? Or report cards being mailed on Thursday? Or the pep rally on Thursday morning when, at the same time, they also called in drug-sniffing dogs and police to check the backpacks that the students had left in the classrooms? (5 bags of interest, one with a cigarette lighter, and one boy suspended for having drug paraphernalia, but no actual drugs which the kids undoubtedly carry on them.) Yeah, it's not been the most low-key week in recent memory.

Last night we went to our favorite local Italian restaurant (yes, he brought his wallet this time) and enjoyed a pleasant meal, and I conked out on the couch about an hour after we returned home. Today's been very mellow and shapeless, and I'm feeling almost back to normal. The guest room bed has fresh linens, the doors to the messy rooms are open again, I've eaten several small meals at odd times, and I'm schlepping around in oversized t-shirt and slippers, hair wet from my post-spa shower. I had a nice time with my friends here, but it's good to have my routines back too. Ahhhhh!