How Many Days til Spring Break?!?

Ha! Only kidding. While I'm not looking forward to parent/teacher conferences, I'm not counting down the hours to Spring Break either. That's a bonus to starting work in the middle of March--you miss the winter doldrums. You do get the occassional freak snow storm (but no snow day!), and the occassional heat wave, but no SAD-disorder like problems.

So it's been two weeks, and things are good. Busy and exhausting, but good. I think I am learning that I wasn't such a bad teacher after all. Not that I thought that I scarred children or anything, just that maybe I wasn't giving 100% all of the time. Well, I've seen what a crappy teacher can do (or not do), and let me just say that a crappy teacher I am not.

I am learning that it's best to approach this profession as a marathon, not as a sprint. There have been years where I realized this, but lately I hadn't been.

I am learning that a little distance is a good thing, that a little sabbatical can bring new life into an otherwise stale situation.

Unlike the pyscho who was with the children in my absence, I actually teach the children. I actually listen to them. And the staff and the parents are already noticing a difference. Heck, the children are noticing the difference.

I am loving that the Babe is just down the hall, and I can get my fix as needed. And I am loving working "only" 4-5 hours a day. And I am loving that the Starbucks runs are frequent.