Hermit Mode

Apparently, originality is not my thing…

…but it should be, no? Or maybe not. Just because I should doesn’t mean I have to. As some of my students will tell me, in their whiny voices of course.

No, it should. It will. I have properly written my thoughts down since HK anyway.

I miss HK. This time last month, I was shopping with the best of them @ Alliance Plaza with a college friend. It’s funny how sometimes I compartmentalize people like that…college friend…work friend…high school friend…roommate friend.

Because I can finally call my roommates my friends. Or at least one of them. We are even taking a Spanish conversation class together. Nice, Bon, social AND educational activities! Two new year’s resolutions. One stone.

Still, teaching is a consuming profession. I’m trying very hard to not let it be - and was very successful this past weekend. I cooked, shopped, cleaned, played DS, watched movies. Did nothing related to school. It was AWESOME.

Which made coming back to work this morning that much harder. I used to never understand why people hated Mondays. I didn’t mind them at all. Why would I mind it? I had someplace to be, something to do, a purpose and a drive, just like the weekends, or any other day of the week. But I think I understand. And I was too ambitious with the warm-up problem for AR today. If I - a grown up with years of school/work/life/math experience - think tackling fractions on a dreary Monday morning is too much, then a 14 year old kid would be beating their head against a brick wall. A brick wall with SPIKES. Fractions are a Thursday-type of problem. Well and warmed up from the cold start on Mondays. Not quite TGIF-brain-out-the-door-yay-it’s-the-weekend!

Hm. 180 days of school allow for approximately 25 Thursdays. 25 days a year where students can work on fractions. Man, if you aren’t naturally born with at least SOME talent for math, you’re screwed.

Calendar voting time! I hope we start earlier in August and allow more time in the middle for days off. Especially during months without bank holidays. I know summer vacation is great - I love my summer too - but 2-3 months solid? It’s an archaic system, from the time when most American kids lived on farms and learned a proper work ethic at home. A time when kids were taught to be polite to people, and if you weren’t you KNEW mom & dad were going to be MAD and it would not be pleasant. A time when “seen and not heard” was the rule for kids in the presence of adults. A time when a grown-up’s word was as good as the action because you knew they would FOLLOW THROUGH, no matter what distraction, or how little resources they had, or how little time they had to take care of their kids. Because it was a conscious choice, and they knew no other way to live it out.

Oh. Wait. Perhaps that time wasn’t so bad after all. Hmm.

25 minutes ago

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