Week In The Life: Tuesday, 4/20

Today was my first day commuting to school.
It was rainy, windy and dark, but I still made pretty good time.

Left the house at 6:12 a.m.
Arrived at school at 7:05 a.m.
Drove 48.8 miles in 53 minutes

I've decided to pick out my clothes the night before and make my lunch. That way, hopefully, I'll be out of the house on time each morning, and not have to rush, rush, rush. Because Lord knows I am not a morning person; I move more like a turtle than a cheetah before the sun comes up.

As I was driving to work, I had a feeling it would be challenging to get pictures of my life today, in part because seven plus hours would be spent in my classroom and two hours of my day would be spent on the road. And as you can see from the "count 'em--one, two, three, four" pictures below, I wasn't very successful.

Which just means I'll have to rely more on the medium of writing than photography to share the happenings of my day.

Not only was today my first day commuting from our new house to school, but it was also the first day of STAR testing. And since I've always taught first grade, this was my first year administering this annual state test.

My usually chatty fourth graders worked quietly on the first part of the language arts test without being reminded to stay silent. Boy was I pleasantly surprised.

It feels really strange not to be able to read anything to the kids on the test.

One girl, bless her heart, pointed to the word "simile" and said, "Does that say smile?" I smiled and said, "Try your best."

One kid fell asleep fifteen minutes into the test, and I had to wake him up. Poor thing fell asleep a second time, and because he nodded off and was so groggy, he didn't finish his test by recess and had to complete it in the library.


When I arrived home, I grabbed a quick snack and a soda and proceeded to grade 30 social studies tests and 30 math tests. (Usually I do my grading on the weekends, but since we moved this past weekend, I'm playing catch-up.) I recorded the grades, along with a batch of previously graded spelling tests, in Gradekeeper on my computer.


With my work out of the way for the day, it was time for play!
Our internet connection is now up and running, so I can access my e-mails and log onto the internet. Yay!! :-)

Up here in the hills, our only option is satellite internet, but the connection speed is so similar to what we had before, that I don't notice any difference.


Before bed, I wrote a thank you card to our realtor, Darren, who really went above and beyond the call of duty in finding us a house. After nine months of working together, he's not just our realtor, he's our friend.


Years ago, I used to routinely write rough drafts for nearly every card I wrote. (Another example of my obsessive compulsiveness...ha-ha!) But lately, I've gotten out of the habit of doing so. For Darren's card, though, I wanted to be sure that what I was thinking made sense and would sound right on paper. Plus, I had just fouled up the first card I wrote to our mortgage planner (and had to go and hunt down a brand-new card), so I figured I'd better make some notes (on the envelope meant for the now-thrown-away card) before penning the final version.

Lastly, I heard this great quote today at school during the morning announcements:

"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet."

Bobby Unser--an American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 three times--sure knew what he was talking about when he uttered those profound words.