t = (V - 2)

Where V = vacation, of course.

For a week of short days, it has been a rather exhausting several days. I've been scrambling about, trying to get things finished and graded, constantly being interrupted by classes that I need to teach. Once you're used to a block schedule, regular periods just seem so short. It doesn't help that my afternoons have been taken up with student presentations. After 3 hours of them, I am hardly fit to think, let alone grade. Plus, the students! You would hardly believe it (although, I suppose, it is all too typical). They're clamoring to bring their grades up, though not seeming to understand that they need to do work in order for that to happen. I've been spending this whole week trying to get my sixth graders to make up all the work they're missing, with mixed results. I've settled for combing through their binders in order to find all the work they could be turning in, however it just isn't enough for most of them. Currently, there are two A-'s in the class and all the other grades are D's or F's. I even made them little packets of all the handouts they were missing, only to have them show up during advisory and ask what they needed to do to raise their grades. Argh! I've been telling them what to do all week!

Looking at the positives, though, I saw my problem class for the last time today. On Friday, (nearly) all the ninth graders will be going to see The Nutcracker, so the few students I may have remaining I can apparently just drop off in a specified classroom and I therefore get to take the period off. What joy!

LaBloShoeMo

Ah, here are another two pairs of shoes that I don't wear. Back in high school I used to wear China flats all the time, however once I got to college I found myself having to walk such great hilly distances across campus that this type of shoe no longer served my needs. They're so cute that I can't bring myself to give them away, but since they're very thin and take up little storage space I don't mind keeping them.