Weekly Wrap-up for September 9, 2012: First Week Down.

I'm glad to be on this side of the first week of school. Now that it is done and over with, I am also hopefully done with the nerves, poor sleeping, and the sickness that decided to attack me the day before school started.

Matt came down with strep LAST Friday and stayed home from work. I told him to stay away from me, but since I was trying to prep for the week and I hadn't seen him that much recently, I stayed home with him. I was doing fine until I woke up on Monday with a sore throat. And of course, wouldn't you know, it got worse over the course of a day. I was a coughing, sneezing mess by bedtime. So, coupled with nerves, I got minimal sleep. Tuesday was worse...coughing, painful throat, and I couldn't breathe. But I toughed it out since it was the first day of school, and I managed not to lose my voice.

Then, I just started feeling worse and worse. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. I ended up waking up at 2:30 in the morning on Wednesday and couldn't go to sleep because I couldn't breathe. I was struggling with what to do, but I went to school and managed to get through my first three hours before calling it quits and having a sub in for the rest of the day so I could go to the doctor. The verdict? Strep, an ear infection, AND a respiratory infection. He gave me some glorious meds and told me to stay home on Thursday.

It made for a weird first week of school, and when I went back in on Friday, it was a little odd. The kids were so sweet and seemed worried. I don't think many teachers are out sick during the first week!

But besides the sickness, the first week went well. I'm teaching hours 1-5 and have my prep during hour 6, so it's a little weird for me. I'm not sure how I feel about having prep at the end of the day as opposed to the beginning or middle, but I'm sure I will figure it out once I get into the swing of things (and I'm not feeling like walking death). My classes are all great and we've already launched into some great content. My American lit class started reading some Native American pieces on Friday to launch our first unit, my myths class is still learning some basics (theories, etc) before we dive into creation myths later this coming week, and my U.S. History classes are reviewing the things they should have learned as eighth graders (our district has them learn colonization through the Civil War as eighth graders, then they pick up with Reconstruction as tenth graders) before we launch into new material. I have awesome kids, and while a few classes are pretty big (35 kids), I think I am going to have an amazing semester. Since I've subbed in the school twice before, I have some familiar faces in my junior/senior myths class.

What I'm taking away from this week is just how lucky I am to be where I am and in the position I have. I am a very lucky girl.

Besides school, I've been in a bit of a reading craze. I'm glad to be out of the slump I was in for the last half of the summer. Granted...I'm not making much progress on my 250 list at the moment, but I'm feeling really good about reading/blogging/writing again. I imagine that when I finish this Harry Potter readalong, I'll be even more pumped to read more classics.

So, speaking of all my reading, this is what I've finished since last week:

• Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

I also started The Turn of the Screw by Henry James last night for RIP, and I started Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. So...a lot of reading. Goblet and Order were some lengthy reads! I think I planned on spacing out my HP reading throughout the fall...but darn, those books are addicting! :) You'll see posts for all of them up eventually. I'm behind in discussing books. I still have Black Beauty, Mansfield Park, A Little Princess, and one or two others waiting for posts as well. Perhaps if I finish some planning today I can get cracking on those posts, right? :)

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I need to get a few things in order for class this week, and figure out what I'm wearing. I've found that pulling out clothes at night saves me an awful lot of time in the morning. ;) I'm also heading out to our local Arts Festival with my mom for an hour or two to walk around and chat. Some fresh air will do me good!

Happy Reading!