Absence

In the time that I've been gone, I haven't done too many exciting things.



I've aged and gained some life experience. But otherwise things are still pretty much the same.

Work is work. I loved my job last year, couldn't dream of doing anything else. Not so much this year. I suppose we all tend to have those years where we feel blah about everything. It doesn't help that everyone acts like the world is ending because we have a new assessment that's timed and more rigorous.

I'm not afraid of the test. I'm just annoyed by all the tedious paperwork. The best thing anyone can do to make sure we're preparing the kids is visit classrooms and give honest feedback. Whatever.

I've become somewhat of a YouTube beauty fanatic. In particular, I love watching videos on nail designs. Rather than watching television to relax in the evenings, I paint my nails. It's weird because I was never such a girly girl.

I'm also still in a reading phase. Although with work, it's hard to make time to read these days, I'm still reading a lot. Currently, I'm working on a YA fantasy trilogy about ghosts. I'm on the second book titled Everwild.

I'm still working the Book Whisper approach with the kids, but I have my work cut out with my big class.  It seems like every little freedom I give them, they want to take it and run with it. So I have to constantly revise my policies for them. I know that if I keep at it, I'll eventually get them to be successful. However, it does make me wonder what it would be like to work at a place where the kids really wanted to learn...