i haven't posted much

but neither has anyone else in blog-land, so i don't really feel bad! for some reason, this second week of february has been quite the whirlwind of responsibilities, and we didn't even really celebrate the hallmark-created-"holi"-day! as i alluded to in a previous post, the low grades on progress reports has led to a surge of (what the school calls) parent "support". i call it "support" because i'm not exactly sure who they're supporting. if it was of the teachers, they'd be keeping their kids under control in the first place, cause that would really be the only support that we'd need. if it was support of the students, they'd have been at home helping the kids all along, or they'd have asked us a long time ago if their taking students out of class everyday or coming late everyday was influencing their child's performance. so i must believe the surge of caring must be exactly that, parent support. they're supporting themselves because even though in a week's time they'll go back to their regular way of doing things, for this one week, they're making themselves feel better by going to the school and meeting with the teachers, and then coming home and yelling at their kids.

but enough cynicism, even though we have had over 10 parent conferences in the past 5 or 6 days, they've been good, and it hasn't been too stressful. i spent the earlier part of the week fighting my sinus infection. though it is still present, i don't feel nearly as bad as i have. i also had TONS of grading to do because we turned in a project, a paper, an in-class writing assignment, and some daily stuff this week (and last week), and then of course, we had our friday quiz (sometimes vocabulary, sometimes grammar). additionally, we had the normal influx of phone calls, emails, meetings, etc. which depleted any remaining "planning" time we have at school, so i haven't planned ahead like i usually do - oh yeah, and somewhere in there, we taught some classes :-)

extracurricularly speaking, i had yoga on monday and wednesday but skipped working out tuesday for dinner with lora and on thursday for a surprise visit to my husband and night in eating chinese and watching tv with my mom. i was more than content with that serving as a valentine's celebration. i'm not huge on the day, but boy the students were! along with the cards and sweets and normal rigamarole that comes along with the day, i have to say this has been the most drama-filled week of 6th grade with my students! there has been more smiling, glance-casting, note-passing, crying, fighting, and yelling than any other week so far. and honestly... this is the week i've enjoyed the most at ewa! i don't think it's the drama i like, i think it's the fact that 1. they acted like real students for the first time ever, instead of a misfit clan, and 2. class time was actually a quiet time away from the hustle and bustle between classes. i think i was frustrated that they weren't allowed to be kids and hang out and talk in the halls before because that meant that the only time they could do their socializing was in class. but with all the insanity between classes and at lunch, language arts class seemed to be the time to do... language arts! insane.

so this thursday, just as i was feeling weighed down but not crushed, i got another task laid on me from the mentor-coordinator. i decided that rather than letting it make me crazy and going home to do it immediately, i would just be calm and do it when i got around to it. i graded my papers as speedily as possible, and now on the weekend i have about 1 class worth of grading, the weekly planning, and this other assignment (a pacing guide) to work on. i think that sounds like a feasible morning's work. i've done my saturday morning cleaning (mostly just picking up junk, washing dishes, and tidying, no real scrubbing), and it's almost becoming a ritual. i don't know if andrew notices it, but i'm sure he appreciates it.

since we didn't have a real valentine's day celebration together, he planned for us to have ours last night. he was going to cook for me, which i love, but we have so much food in this house, we really didn't need to do that, and he wanted to go out and do something fancy or exciting, but i was so exhausted that that didn't look like a great plan. but, he bought me a lovely orchid (i really hope i can keep it alive), heated me up some leftovers, and we watched some more desperate housewives. nightly, we've been making our way down wisteria lane and the first season of dvds. it's quite an entertaining show, but only if you watch it all at once. i don't know if i could stand a normal season with a week between episodes, but andrew and i have pretty much decided that that's our preference anyway - watching seasons of shows all at once. after finding out that mike was convicted of manslaughter, we decided to go out to porter's for desserts and wine. it was a lovely evening with good food, good wine, and good conversation. after that, we came back in, watched a few more episodes (and of course i fell asleep on the couch), and went to bed. it really was a great end to an action packed week.

today's plans include a tad more cleaning (i might even do laundry!); grading papers, making pacing guides, and planning lessons - at caribou; hopefully putting up the picture frame i put together with the wedding reception table cameras, perhaps repotting my orchid, bra-shopping, and when andrew gets off work at 2, we'll find out where to go from there!