Class

Lest I actually have a month of vacation solely devoted to nothing but laying by the pool, strongly encouraged by my departement chair and my new principal, I enrolled in the gifted endorsement course offered by Cobb County.

What was I thinking??????

I like the material (after all, I spent all of my school years in gifted classes) and I think there are a lot of ideas being presented that will make me a better teacher all around. Not to mention the promise of actually getting to teach the advanced courses. (I recently found out that this year I am going to get to teach Analysis- the gifted Pre-Cal course. I am excited and terrified all at the same time.)

But the work required for this class has been overwhelming. It only lasts for 8 days- all of last week and Mon, Tues., Wed. of this next week. Class is from 8:30-3:15 everyday with a 30 minute break for lunch. But then I come home (a new home for me, by the way, but that will have to wait for a different blog when I am not feeling so overwhelemed), and I have to read between 30 and 50 pages of scholary journals. I love to read, but scholarly journals make me want to cut my own eyes out with a grapfruit spoon so that I will have a reason to never have to read them again. And on top of that we have to write 6 annotated bibilographies. I am on the 4th and so far have written 10 pages worte of work. I swore after grad school that I would never to another annotated bibilography. I can't believe that I let these sneak up on me.

After this class ends, I have to take another one that meets twice a month during the school year and follow that with another week and a half course next summer. Finally I will be gifeted endorsed.

But the question I am thinking about now, as I procrastinate these papers, is does this mean that I intend to stay in education longer then the 4 years I said I was in it for?

Jet Lag

I once heard it said concerning jet lag that it takes 1 day to recover for each hour of the time difference. 1 day down out of 12.

Sunday, after getting home around midnight, I was wide awake until 3AM and then woke up at 8. I think that my body assumed that I was just laying down for a long afternoon nap.

Last night, my goal was to stay awake until 10 PM. I managed to stay out of bed that long by watching the first episode of LOST (I picked up both seasons in my DVD run so that I could catch up on the hype). After that I went to bed and thought that I would try to read for a while. After I literally dopped my book twice, I decided that I just couldn't do it.

As I drifted off, I thought to myslef that I would surly sleep through the night becasue I was so incredibily tired. But no. 2 AM wide awake.

I managed to go back to sleep about 3:30, but only to wake up every 45 minutes or so. I finally got up at 6.

I am pretty sure that you didn't want to know so much detail about my sleeping patterens, but it may do you good to understand why I am no fun at night. Give me a week.


Happy 4th.