Great Juliana one-liner

Juliana has become obsessed with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We have an adorable video of her turning the pages and "reading" the book, while acting it out with her VHC stuffed animal.  

The next day, Juliana told me we had to rub her stuffed caterpillar's tummy.  When I asked why, she loftily informed me: "Mommy, he had a stomach ache yesterday."

So cute.

Gratitude list (ever evolving)

I'm grateful for:

my adorable daughter
crisp fall afternoons
my always happy dog
Juliana's goldfish (finally) not dying
my loving hubby
working with my closest friends
my mom
my daughter's adorable 1st school pictures 
my husband doing the dishes
my students who never fail to be humorous and engaging
diet coke
hal higdon plans
a warm house filled with things I love (ok, I do need to do some cleaning out...)
digital pictures and Wal-Mart instant photo developers
my flash drive
silent sustained reading--and being able to do more reading myself
my Kindle and my old paperbacks 
herb popcorn from the NLC
colorful leaves dotting the lawn
my friend Maggie
a desk buddy that always make me laugh
babies, and the idea of having another one within a couple of years
Hilltop School 
an English department of laughs, professionalism and support
creative writing
Friday night date nights
online classes :)
my daughter loving to read
facebook
my new slippers

Weekend Checklists

The best part of long weekends aren't catching up on rest (though it's great) or even spending time with my family (also great).  The best part of long weekends?  Actually getting through my to-do list!  I feel 3 day weekends are much more conducive to productivity than the mere 2 days.  Who's with me? :)

Time management

I have Moodle accounts set up for each of my classes.  I put a lot of work into them over the summer, but I've recently noticed I'm only really using it with two classes.  The two classes I use it with I find it easier because all the kiddos have computer access at home, and I can use discussion forums, podcasts, etc.  But my other kiddos, who don't have a lot of internet access?  I'm shortchanging them.  They benefit from technology usage a lot more than my other classes.

I'm not sure what the problem is.  Over the summer, I thought it would be a breeze to create an online activity 1-2 times per week and take them into the computer lab.  Now, however, it seems I barely have time to cover the basics; I'm missing something vital in my instruction. 

Time management hasn't been a huge issue for me in the past few years.  I typically consider myself an organized, hard-working, relatively put-together person who can get a lot done in little time.   This year has knocked my socks off.  I seem to be struggling in all areas of time management and never seem to get enough done.  I'm in my 7th year of teaching, but I'm struggling as much as I did in my 2nd.  Is anyone else going through something like this?


To be clear: I do not intend this as a whine.  I mostly want to reflect on why I'm having so much trouble so I can fix it. :)  Honestly, I think I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself and the pressure is messing with my brain.  I know I need to pull it together for my students; every one of my classes has a great group of students.  

When I first started teaching, I used to time block before I went to bed.  I made lists of what I needed to get done during the day and specifically wrote down an hour-to-hour schedule.  Once I was into my third year, I decided I had a pretty good handle on things and rejected the practice.  


Regardless of what's going on my my crazy brain, I think I need to set up a similar system.  I find myself working on something, then becoming distracted and beginning to work on something else, then become distracted and work on something else.  While all this jumping from one thing to the next is probably a great "keeping my brain sharp" activity, I always feel harried and I  lack completion of tasks.  Back to time blocking! : )


Anyone out there have other suggestions for time management?