Christmas Break: The Abridged Version

Contrary to what the title of the post may lead you to believe, this will not be a brief summary of the events of my Christmas break. If, for some reason, you want that, give me a call.

Jen and I have been in Michigan for 5ish days and we head back to MA in 3. This is my first Christmas as a non-student and the brevity of the break is hard to get used to. I just got here and now it's time to think about preparing to leave. In most ways, I consider myself a break realist. That means, I tend to know what can and cannot fit into a break, and am usually able to accomplish what I deem necessary.

This break has not been that way. I made a mental list of people I need to see on the 15 or so hour drive here, and most of my list remains unvisited. I think this may have a mathematical explanation. The farther I move from home, the more energy it takes to reconnect with people at home, and therefore the fewer people with whom I reconnect.

Do relationships really have to be this way?

Radioactivity

Jen and I made it safely home at approximately 5AM, with only slight complication. At the border crossing from Ontario into Michigan I discovered that I am radioactive. Apparently, the US government does not like to let radioactive materials into the country (never you mind that I was just as radioactive when I left the US and entered Canada. I suppose the Canadians welcome such things). So, they pulled us off to the side and we went through a set of tests to determine if it was infact me that was radioactive or if we were smuggling something illegal into the country. No worries, I was the only radioactive substance in the car.

You see, on Thursday I had a bone scan. In a bone scan they inject you with a radioactive dye and then track how rapidly or slowly the dye is absorbed into an injured area. Apparently, it doesn't go away right away. The good news is that the border patrolmen were very considerate and kept reassuring me that I wasn't in trouble (perhaps I looked worried although I was pretty sure they were not going to make me stay in Ontario... once the Canadians found out, they probably wouldn't want me either).

Now I'm home for a little over a week. Plenty of time to enjoy Christmas, grade lots of essays on Tale of Two Cities and tests about European Exploration, and plan what in the world I'm going to teach after break. The festivities begin with a Christmas party in Grand Rapids at the home of Chris Salzman and Keller Davis.

Hopefully the break will also provide more time to actually put some posts of substance on this blog. Hopefully.

Snow emergencies, Christmas music, and high school basketball

Well, I've been rather quiet on this thing recently. My apologies.

I am currently in the middle of my first Boston snow storm. It started snowing around 1pm and has snowed heavily since. My commute home at around 3 took about an hour - 40 minutes longer than usual. Not bad at all considering my roommate who is trying to commute out of the city sat on a bridge for at least an hour... and she's still not home yet. The problem is, everyone got out of school and work early and headed out at the same time. The result - gridlock. Gridlock means no plows. No plows mean slippery/buried roads. Welcome to the city.

My 9th grade girls had a study day today for their test next week. In an attempt to lighten the mood (lots of tests this week and next + lots of snow outside), I played Christmas music during the class. It was a big hit. Appropriate, too, considering Christmas is in 12 days (ahhh!).

Yesterday, both the boys and girls varsity basketball teams played at LCA, the largest Christian school in the area. Our girls lost by 8 but our boys won by 15, a big victory for our school because we're so new. I love watching my students play sports. They're so fun.

3 school days and a half day of Christmas activities stand between me and Christmas break, and Margie B. Davis is coming for the weekend. Things are looking good.

Wow

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1186554463

And this is why I love Margie... and this is why I miss these girls!

My fortune...

i had take-out Chinese for dinner... and my fortune leaves me underwhelmed: "Your efforts will definitely be remembered." Considering my occupation of daily putting forth effort to shape young minds, I'm not so sure that this fortune is encouraging. I would much rather it say, "your efforts will definitely be rewarded." "Remembered" leaves room for them being either memorably good or memorably bad.

Some days, I'm pretty sure it's a toss up. Throw the lesson in the air... heads is success, tails is utter failure. The funny thing is, the same lesson can come up either heads or tails depending on the class. Today I struggled through the same lessons I thought went very well yesterday.

Now it's time to get to work finalizing my coin toss (lesson) for tomorrow.

Soulja Boy

Tonight Sarah and I went to Bentley College where our BTA Step Team (R.E.A.L) performed. Aside from hearing the song "Soulja Boy" far too many times (I really don't like that song), it was really fun. I learned a few things. 1. Step is hard... those kids have rhythm. 2. Hip hop dancing is dirty... there's really no way around that. 3. I love my students. The performance was at a college, as I said, and aside from one other group that was made up of jr. high and high schoolers on an all-star step team, every other group that performed was made up of college students. That being said, BTA represented well... there were about 25 BTA fans there, not counting the girls that performed.

Attending extra-curriculars is one of my favorite parts of being a teacher. Good thing, too, because it's basketball season.