Thursday, October 4, 2012

Early End of Week

I'm healthier this year. Well, I had a cold, but it was easier. I was healthy for six weeks, then sick for four days, and now back to 95% (just a tad bit sniffly). I think the reduced stress of a healthy, supportive, challenging job is really helping my body. The cold was so easy to get through, just a couple days of tired ick.

My students' Excellence scores improved by yesterday; averages increased 5%, 6%, and 8% by class, and one class even reached 80%. I can't wait to try again on Tuesday.

Due to our half day tomorrow, I am not teaching, so I'm done teaching for the week. I have free work time all day tomorrow, and an early release/work time after about 12:30. My only duties are morning and afternoon homeroom.

We commonly have visitors at North Star. Last week, M. Night Shyamalan came to visit, because he's working on a book about schools who are closing the Achievement Gap (I can't figure out what the twist ending will be, though). Today, we had 16 guests from the University of Chicago (I think?) who are planning on starting a charter school there.  A few folks came into my classroom to take notes, and I know they were here to see how awesome we are. It was great, and made me feel like a celebrity.

I'm a little intimidated by so much work time tomorrow, because I don't have the world's greatest attention span. I've created a list of the tasks I'd like to do (I've already finished my "have to do" tasks for the week), in order of importance, and I'm going to divide them into alternating 30- and 60-minute blocks. I think I got this. I'd like to stay and work until 4, but if I can't focus and I'm just fooling around, it's not worth my time to stay. I think I can, though. After 4, I'm taking the afternoon to go to the park and put in a long run. 5 miles.

On another note, I made a delicious honey-soy-ginger glazed cod with mushroom risotto. It's amazing how much difference a little Pecorino can make.

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