Despite our ever-so-thrilling (read: depressing and boring, respectively) budget and WASL meetings which took three hours of my afternoon, I have a renewed excitement about teaching. I have discovered that the more time I put into planning, the fewer discipline, attendance, and late work problems students have. In years past, I have become lazy about planning, relying on my “monitor and adjust” flexibility due to heavy involvement with grad school and Mary Kay. I had forgotten how much I enjoy making lists, doing long-term planning, being creative, and using student input to help plan my next few days or weeks. I had forgotten how much work it could be, also, when making all of these plans, going to all of these meetings, contacting the parents that need contacting, cleaning my room, assessing the students’ learning, and prepping for labs or activities. I enjoy what I do–I just wish I had more time to do it in. I have a house to clean, meals to cook, books to read, and hats to knit! I also have to socialize and exercise. What I do leaves little room for such frivolous activities! Nevertheless, I am excited about the next few weeks of teaching. It’s hard to believe that it’s only a month until spring break. This year is flying by….