I'm Back

After the long holiday break - I'm back. I enjoy the breaks with the family, but they get me out of my blogging routine.

Leading up to the break, the kids were bouncing off the walls in anticipation, Helen was stressed to the max trying to tie up everything that comes with the end of a semester, and I was trying to finish up some things at work and avoid anything else that would keep me from making a clean break.

With all the standarized testing going on, Helen's job has gotten much tougher. The kids and the teachers are worn out and being held accountable for kids who don't do their part is very stressful.

Helen teaches on a "block" schedule where each class lasts about twice as long each day as a normal high school class, so that one semester on a block schedule is equivalent to a year long class on a normal high school schedule. She really likes the block schedule, but it can be challenging sometimes - like when the school system decides to do things like makeup snow\flood days from the 1st semester during the 2nd semester. Makeup days in the 2nd semester don't help with the 1st semester material that still needs to be covered.

The semesters used to end in mid January and Helen used to complain that the kids were done by the holidays and weren't interested in ramping back up after the holidays for exams. Now the semesters end before the holidays, but Helen has decided that the old schedule was better for her. There's just too much to do with the new schedule.

Helen pushed herself so hard that she was exhausted and got sick right before school ended and spent a good portion of the first holiday week in bed. Teaching...it's the gift that keeps on giving. She was not happy.

Thankfully this year was a favorable holiday schedule. With Christmas and New Year on Friday we had the whole week to get ready for Christmas and the weekend after New Year to wind down. We're already dreading 2012 when Christmas and New Year are on Tuesday, which means the holiday break will be much shorter.