Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002
Pre-Thanksgiving break exhaustion, posted at 10:44 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today will be a very long day. It's parent/teacher conference night, meaning my day will be about a 14-hour one.My thrown together lesson in first period went well, though, so that's a good thing. The Computer On Wheels (C.O.W.) didn't work for my demonstration on how to create a Powerpoint presentation, so I threw together this theme finding exercise in To Kill a Mockingbird that went way better than ever could have been expected.
We did a little bit of Socratic Seminar. I usually stay uninvolved, quietly sitting at the outer edge of the circle taking notes on all the kids on my laptop, but today the kids were talking about Tom Robinson escaping from prison and getting shot. "He shouldn't have gotten shot, especially since he didn't even do it!", she said. She then added, "Like that John Malvo guy, he should die because he did it, but not Tom Robinson." I couldn't let that go.
"Excuse me," I said, and all the kids turned around. "There has been no trial yet, and all of the evidence you've heard has been through the media from a six-hour interview on a 17-year old kid without a lawyer present. We have this thing in this country called innocent until proven guilty." The discussion then exploded into a capital punishment debate, which I didn't want at all and tried to simmer down. I think that Malvo probably did it, but as you know, I am categorically opposed to the death penalty. But that wasn't my point in getting in the discussion - I never even mentioned it (it was heartening to hear some kids say it, though). I did have a problem with them saying that they should be killed even before they had a trial, though. Otherwise, the kids had a really good discussion today.
Lately, I have been exhausted. Usually when I'm working out regularly, I have tons of energy, but this week I feel drained. It probably has to do with the fact that I'm here at school so damn late everyday. I went home at 6 on Monday, at 8 on Tuesday, and last night was the night I thought I'd be able to get home early. Nope. I had a parent come in and take the test that I had given the kids. Just to see how she'd do. It's great to have parents involved, but I was just thinking to myself, "Come on come on come on, I want to go home" the whole time she was there. I ended up going home at around 5, which I guess is okay but then of course I had lesson planning to do at home (lesson planning that didn't even come to fruition because of the technical problems). I've noticed that a lot of other teachers are looking down as well. I think it's pre-Thanksgiving break exhaustion. This time between October and Christmas is notorious for being rough and long. I'm trying to make it through the year without a sick day, but I may have to take one in December if it's as hard-hitting as November has been. Another teacher here is currently hospitalized with pneumonia, and I don't want something like that to happen to me because I'm running myself down.
I am getting quite excited about Thanksgiving. I'm leaving right after school for North Carolina, where I'll be visiting my great aunt and uncle. My grandparents are driving up from Michigan, and I'm especially excited about seeing them. Holden will be dropped off on the way, in Alexandria with Mike. It will be a long trip, but I'm hoping that my supervisor will watch my 7th period on Wednesday so I get an early start on the Holiday traffic. Last year, it took me 17 hours or so to complete a trip back home to Michigan that normally takes 8 hours.
Back to grading...