Yawn . . .

I'm exhausted, and it's only Monday. But, as my coworker reminded me on the way home, "we're 20% closer to Spring Break than we were this morning!"

I'm not entirely sure why I'm always so tired. I haven't been running more (or less, really). I take vitamins. I purposefully don't consume large lunches. Part of the reason for today's fatigue is probably due to the field trip on Friday . . . which went well, except for the parent who called the police at 8 pm b/c she couldn't find her child. No, we did not leave the kid at the beach. No, the kid was not "snatched up by some pervert," (which was the parent's main concern, other than yelling at me & my coworker in front of the police & several parents). The kid was picked up by her father (imagine that!) and apparently the 2 adults did not communicate well.

So, after that eventful day, I managed to give a bridal shower out of town & then spent most of Sunday planning for this week. My intention was to slide by on mediocre lesson plans this week & cruise into Spring Break, but I just learned that I'll have my 4th observation this week, so that plan failed. At least I can perhaps say, "Hey, the kids aren't usually like this . . . they must all have spring fever!" if my lessons flop. Of course, our kids are always nutty, so I'm a bit worried about how the last quarter will go.

Our field trip Friday makes me think a lot about how we're doing school these days. The kids were outside in small heterogeneous groups doing hands-on activities for an entire day. When I looked around, every kid was engaged in active learning. I know this isn't practical in current schools, but should we examine that? It seems like our schools have turned into community centers and social work centers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that we haven't had a commensurate addition of resources to deal with the shift of needs. Anyhoo... I'm probably way too tired to philosophize on this completely.

Instead, I'll try to think coherently enough to plan an engaging lesson on ocean pollution for tomorrow. I think I'll drench a few kids in motor oil & have the rest of the class strategize about how to clean them up.