Slacker

So, I've been slacking on my posts this month. It's already May 19th and I've only posted a few times. May has been busy. My last class was May 7 and it took the entire week to get everything graded. Things just kept coming up and eating up all my time. On top of that, the final in one of my classes was a paper. It took forever to grade 20, 15+ page papers. That's what I get I guess! The other class also had papers due on the last night of class but there were only 10 of them. Anyway, it's over. I submitted my last grade Sunday night, after being held up by yet another plagiarizer. Can you imagine, plagiarizing in a doctoral class, and this was not the first occasion AND the students thought I would not notice? So out of my realm of thinking when I was in school. That's by far been the biggest adjustment for me this year, realizing that everyone is not the same kind of student I was and, sometimes, that's ok. But plagiarism, really? Since then I've been delving into the wonderful world of curriculum! My two courses this summer are in curriculum and instruction. And...since I have a degree in educational research NOT curriculum, it's been a real challenge to develop two courses that are way out of my comfort zone. The students I'm teaching are all administrators, principals, assist principals, district coordinators, assistant supers, pretty much all people with A LOT more curriculum experience than me. So, technically, I'm qualified to teach these courses, you know that masters degree in early childhood you got back in 1999, you had some curriculum courses, right? HA! Anyway, we're taking the higher ed spin on the courses so that hopefully they will learn something new. I've been developing new courses all year and what I've really needed is a good curriculum course to help me develop these courses, yeah, like the one I'm teaching in June! So, I'll be able to tell them all the things not to do and how to handle students who complain, plagiarize, and critique every little thing you do and say. Ok, venting over. Of course not all my students are like that. I have a core group of about 4 or 5 that are really dedicated and are a pleasure to teach. Ok, so I had to take some stuff out at this point. Did you hear about the teacher who complained about her students on her personal blog and lost her job? I've learned so much this year, about people, about myself. The balancing is the hardest part. How to find time to do it all? Can a mother really have it all? The jury is still out. I have this mental image of myself standing alone with about 20 things swirling above my head, trying not to get whacked or let any of them fall. Things seem out of control sometimes and I'm the type of person who craves structure and routines. If I can figure out a way to put everything in its little compartment and keep it from swirling over my head, I'll be good (and probably rich if I can figure that out). In no way am I complaining. I did not say I was not smiling while ducking the swirl.

Ugg, this spell check is not working so I have to copy and paste the text from Word. Please, make sure your children learn phonics. Whole language stenks (haha, that's a joke).