Do you remember the first day back to school after a vacation? How tired you were in the morning, and how much you wished that it could still be Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Easter? I'll bet you never thought that the teachers felt the same way you did!

I had a particularly slow to wake up morning today, and it took me almost all of 1st hour to wake up. We're reading a short novel in that class, and while I was reading the chapter to them, I kept thinking, "Am I really reading this? Or am I sleeping and dreaming?"

Thank goodness my 2nd hour kids are much more active than my sleepy seniors and juniors 1st hour. I spent a couple of periods doing a straight lecture today, and gosh, did that feel nice! I enjoy lecturing, but kids don't enjoy it as much as I do (what a shock!), so I keep the lectures for the really big important topics. Today we were working on how to conjugate the present tense. I've spent 9 years perfecting how to introduce this so that it both makes sense and is simple to do. So far, it seems like it's all systems go. The real test is when I introduce this in my 6th hour class next week. If they can whine and complain their way through it and still get it, I know I'm good.

Speaking of those 6th hour kids, they're still up to their no-good tricks. They may have dialed back a bit though after they good the poor attitude comments on their report cards. Mid-quarter is coming up this week, so progress reports go out. We'll see if that keeps them on their toes. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the rest of my classes are stupendous. They are so great that if I didn't have this 6th hour nightmare, I would be floating through each day. So why is it that I can't stop dwelling on this horrid class? My guess is that I feel the need to fix everything. Oh, and being human, too. :)