Saturday Work Day

Here again on the weekend...the week was a good, and busy one. I like this year's crop of kiddies pretty much, even if they have noticed some impatience on my part. They still want to come and hang around at the end of the day despite their immense suffering at my hands during the school day. How resilient!

We are doing another two-day inservice thing. We are committed to a certain number of them by contract. The idea that we are trying this year is to front-load them in the school year so as to have them finished well in advance of the late winter-early spring blues. I think that we do not have much of anything of that sort after February. It makes it nicer then, but it makes the first part of the school year pretty tiring.

The way that we do the two-day thing is to stay until 6:30 on Friday nights and then come in from 8-12:30 on Saturday. Breakfast is included, and you have to like a boss who will come in early to cook for his employees. This week we are kind of short on staff for various reasons, so we are concentrating on getting a number of necessary things done in the classroom. My problem at this particular moment is that I stayed up a little too late last night after a steam at Joe's, and I am not really feeling the motivation that I need to get things done. On top of that, my wife is in Anchorage for the next day or so, and I suspect that I am moping around feeling sorry for myself. I should get at it so that I can get all of my stuff done today and relax tomorrow. I just need to get convinced of that fact, and all will be well.

I feel that I am off to a good start this year with classes. I am really trying to focus on getting a routine set with the kids. I think that they are getting it for the most part, too. Of course, there is some goofiness, but that is to be expected, even if it has to be dealt with. Kids, after all, are kids, and will always be on some level. I doubt that all of the behavior programs in the world will change that. It still is nice to get some basic perimeters established for acceptable behavior.

In more real-world news, there are reports of moose sightings in the neighborhood recently, which is cause for much excitement. Hunting season for moose begins on the first of September, and anticipation is beginning to build. The opener will dovetail nicely with the Labor Day weekend for our kids, but I do have to remind them about getting their pass requests filled out. The district has a permission arrangement for traditional subsistence activities, but the request needs to be submitted in advance. A word to the wise is in order.

The weekend awaits, which means that I need to get busy here right now and get my work done...wish me luck!