Now that school has started, I have not done any painting. Perhaps that will change once I get acclimated to my schedule. I’m not giving up on it. It is just delayed a bit.
I have come home most nights absolutely exhausted. It’s like I stumble through the front door, put my book bag down, set a timer on my phone for 40 minutes, and then collapse onto the couch and sleep. Dinners around here have been rather bleak, as I have little left to offer. The good news is that we are still eating!
Today I finished the last of 12 freshman orientation classes. Yes....I repeated the same presentation each time over the course of 4 days. I even repeated the same jokes. Today I was really growing weary of it. It’s especially hard if I have a non-responsive group of kids. That was the case today during first period. I would offer forth my joke to them and....nothing. Dead pan. Deer in the headlights. At least I had gotten a chuckle or two out of most groups, but this was a tough audience. Even the teacher told me that they are tough to work with because they are so quiet. My favorite group was one of the classes that came in yesterday. They were a riot and even laughed at my jokes. They answered when I asked them a question. A couple of the boys in the class were rather witty, but not disrespectful at all. That’s the kind of group that gives positive energy back to a teacher. They had me laughing. The other thing that makes a difference is the teacher. I have teachers that work with me and add their own dialogue to the presentation (and humor), which gives energy too. I also had another teacher who sat at a back table and just graded papers. Not much added energy there.
In all, I had 176 students come into the library today. The vast majority spent significant time in the library, but some just came in briefly to check out a book or to print something. I really love my job. I love my school. My administrators are really great. I like most of my coworkers (See...I’m honest). I really enjoy the students. I feel very blessed. (But tired too)
