Blaaaah

I have not been here in forever. I've been feeling a tad overwhelmed. And when I feel overwhelmed, I don't do anything. I always wished I was one of those people who does something productive, like clean like crazy, when they feel they have too much going on.

I've hit what I'm calling my "Spring Slump" at work lately. I can feel the burnt-out-ness (?) coming on at full speed, and it makes me nervous. I have a hard time thinking I can make it through one more year of this, let alone 40 more years. I had been spending too much time doing work, and decided I needed to relax that. I'm still there from roughly 6:40 until 4 or 4:30, but I just can't bring home as much work as I used to. It's a bad cycle though, because there's work I NEED to do, so then when I get to work the next morning, I run around like a mad woman trying to get stuff done.

Oh, and I haven't written ANY lesson plans in close to a month. I'm supposed to do them each week for the following week. At some point I have to play catch up, and as of now I anticipate that taking days.

We're doing massive prep for MCAS, our state standardized testing. Third grade gets tested in reading comprehension for 3 days next week. My kids are exhausted, and sick of practicing, and starting to feel nervous. It's not their fault. We've been pracicing for ages now, and the whole climate of the school has changed in preparation for it. I met with the principal and got my official test administrator's booklet, and learned the 75,839 things I can screw up with that would result in me losing my job. We also had a meeting today to plan a pep rally for the students to get them all excited and feeling confident that they can do well. At one point it was suggested that all the teachers wear cheerleader uniforms and chant with pom-poms. Luckily, I'll just be reciting a poem and wearing a silly hat.

I need to do something more productive than blog...