A long day...

Yesterday was a long day. It was the start of parent-teacher conferences, and although the students were dismissed after lunch...we teachers still had much to do.

For me, conference week is spent running madly from one conference to the other...trying to get to as many as I can so that I can say something like, "Your student's English is progressing just as we would hope. S/he is doing really well with speaking and listening, and now we'll really start to work on reading and writing." Or something like that. Except in Spanish most times.

But I'm serious about the running. Most teachers have 25 conferences to do. We specialists have as many as 7o students on our caseload! So while its virtually impossible to make every conference, we really try to get to a lot of them.

This experience is compounded for me because our school used to be two schools. Our two campuses are separated by a large playground. And each day we have to make the trek from one side to the other--rain, snow, or shine.

Normally this is fine. We've got umbrellas coming out of our ears and its good to get a little exercise! However on days like yesterday, the four minute (if you're speed walking) journey just seemed too long. May I please explain?

Here was my schedule for yesterday:

8:15 WEST SIDE Get to work, prep for the day, first two classes on same side.
10:35 EAST SIDE Two classes on this side...then travel back for lunch!
11:50 WEST SIDE Lunch. Take care of paperwork until first conference.
1:30 EAST SIDE Conferences number one and two. Except the second conference was suddenly postponed until 3.
2:30 WEST SIDE Meeting for WASL planning.
3:00 EAST SIDE Second try for the second conference. I end up interpreting.
3:35 WEST SIDE Another three conferences.
5:00 EAST SIDE Last two conferences of the night. Call me the interpreter again.
6:05 WEST SIDE Meet el maestro at the car. Drive to the pizza place. Get dinner, go home, and collapse!

Thanks for listening.
The End.