Busy week ahead

Tomorrow is my last day of summer. On Tuesday, the English department has training on the technology for our new textbooks. We have our system-wide inservice on Wednesday, and then Thursday and Friday are at our individual schools.

After the meeting Tuesday, I'm making a run to Birmingham to go to Costco. I always buy pens in bulk. It never fails that somebody's pen runs out of ink right in the middle of class, and he/she doesn't have an extra one. I'm going to go by Susan's and she's going with me, and then I hope that Katy, Phillip, and Sam will be around so we can go by to see them. Katy said it is Phillip's last day before he has to start back, and they've got some running around to do. Hopefully, Susan and I can pop by for just a few minutes. I want her to meet the most beautiful grandson in the world. It will probably be late afternoon anyway, so maybe they'll be done.

Even though I dread having to start getting up early again, I do look forward to the new school year. It's always interesting getting to meet the new kids and to find out about them. In the last two years, I've taught primarily senior English, but the first year I was back in general ed., I taught a 9th grade English class, and then last year I had a 10th grade class first semester and an 11th grade class second semester. The day I was at the school for freshman orientation, I pulled up my rosters to see who my students were. I've got several students who have been in class with me before.

One of them, Hillary, saw me in Wal-Mart after she had gotten her schedule. She came running over with a huge smile on her face to tell me she had me for English 12. She was in my English 11 class last year. When I told the students how I did my seating arrangement, she rolled her eyes. My first thought was "attitude!" I could have made some comment about how I didn't tolerate attitudes, but I don't work that way. I find some way to connect with them--knowing an older sibling or some other relative, giving them a compliment, associating them with something personal to me, etc. It turned out that her desk was right in front of me. As she took her seat, I told her how absolutely gorgeous I thought her eyes were. Another student laughed and said I was going to give her a big head. I said I didn't think so, but I still thought she had gorgeous eyes. From that moment on, no attitude from her at all. She was--and will be--a true joy.

As far as the past few days--Ali and Bama and I had a great, but very quiet, couple of days. There was no one around us at the lake until John got there Friday. Even after John got there, Todd and Bev were the only other people around. We rode over to Ron and Cindy's late yesterday afternoon and cooked out. Wes was coming up, and when Cindy told him we were there, he said we couldn't leave until he got there. :) We haven't seen him in about two years. I always thought he was the cutest thing, and he's still a cutie. It was about 9:00 last night before we headed back to our place. I'm really glad we're know that little area so well.

That's about it for now. Have a great one!