Running running

I ran my first official 5K yesterday.

I was a basketcase before I walked the half mile from my house up to the park. I had it in my head that I had no business in this race. Quite frankly, that was a little ridiculous to even think about. I typically run 2.5 to 3 miles three to four days a week. The route that the race was on went through my neighborhood and was very similar to what I typically run.

I'm not the fastest, but there's no reason to think I couldn't do it.

Once I got to the park, I was fine. But I was ready to start -- and that didn't happen until 15 minutes after the race was supposed to start. I now was just worried about starting off too fast, and I almost zipped around quite a few people but I reminded myself to not burn out too quickly.

But, I think I ended up starting off too slowly. I was about a minute off of where I really wanted to be. But, i did run the entire thing, and I passed a lot of people. Jeremy told me I had moved up from the back of the middle pack to close to the front. I did beat quite a few of the football team that ran it, and those who beat me, walked a good portion of it and sprinted at the end (where their coaches were stationed. Lazy butts).

So now I have a new goal to beat this time. I can do it, and we'll see where I end up in two weeks.

One Foot in Front of the Other

The title of this entry is pretty obvious and typical, but it's also very fitting.

Last summer, I had a complete physical. Let's just say my lazy lifestyle wasn't doing the best it could for my body.

I decided this needed to change. I cut out fast food, started eating more fruit, but the biggest thing was I started working out. The elliptical and I became close friends.

The big issue I had to get over was my asthma. I have exercise-induced asthma (humidity, cold, and me being congested can trigger it, too). It was pretty bad in high school, but in college it got a little better thanks to me hoofing it all over Mizzou's campus.

I'm not going to deny that I wasn't scared when I stepped on that elliptical. The thought of the screaming lungs, the inability to catch my breath, and shaky hands didn't exactly make me want to jump into this guns a blazin'.

I've been good though. I even made the jump to full out running on the treadmill.

Best part: the asthma has rarely been an issue.

Yes, I still have bad days. But the good part is that I can tell when I'm starting to push myself too hard. I know my symptoms, and I know when to slow down and when to just say "It's time to stop."

The important thing is that when those days happen, it doesn't make me not go back. I show up the next day, and push myself just as hard.

I'm not super fast yet, and I'm not doing any long distances. But, considering a year ago running a quarter mile would have made me keel over and now I can do three half-miles in a 30-minute period, I'd say I'm slowly slaying the beast.

Success

It isn't hard to see evidence of teacher's successes being measured by tests in today's world. And I won't go into my thoughts and opinions on that matter. But, I think if you have any common sense, it is easy to figure out that those percentages aren't really what measures your success.

We have 20 minutes of daily silent reading time in our school, and my students have it for my class once a week. Yes, there is the typical grumbling you'd expect (they're teenagers for cripe's sake that's what they excel at). For the most part, though, my students have been pretty good at staying on task and digging into their free choice books (one class has almost read 250 books since the start of the year).

Yesterday, I told one girl I'd miss her next year as she recommended another seven books for me to read. She immediately told me that she was going to miss me more because I was the only one who gave her recommendations and good ones at that. A few minutes later, she told me I had to give her some type of contact information for the summer because there was no way that she'd make it through the summer without my input on books.

Today, different class, different student. Same conversation.

Back to the first student today: Mrs. Knipper, I read in previous years, but nothing like this. But, because of YOU, I really, really like it now.

Now, that's really some success.

End of the Year Blues

It's the fourth quarter. Kids are shutting down, and I've got news for you, teachers are shutting down to. This doesn't mean that we're giving up and not teaching or doing our jobs, but it is getting harder to do them.

We don't have an easy job. We have to be "on" for at least eight hours a day and then go home and grade or make lesson plans. Yes, we may get time off during the summer, but I'm pretty sure I put in more hours during my nine months of work time than are in those 2.5 months I get off. But, when you keep those hours up for that long of time, your body starts to rebel. It's time for a break, it keeps yelling. We need it - physically and mentally.

But, the end of the year is rather bittersweet.

Sure, there are those kids that I'm ready to not have in my room again. But there are very few.

It's not easy to say good bye to those that I've really made connections with. Sure, I'll see them in the hallways, but I don't get to have those daily conversations or have them come up to my desk to chat about "THE BEST book EVER, Mrs. Knipper!"

So, I find myself drawing away from all of them. I think I do it to make it less painful.

I remember leaving Pensacola on my last day at school. My last class of the day was my favorite, and it was no secret. We had really bonded that year, and I loved all of them dearly. It was killing me to have to say good-bye and not get to see how they turned out and watch them on their life journey.

They felt the same way.

The bell rang.

They didn't leave.

Instead, they were still in a mass hug, clinging to me. And we were all teary eyed. I slowly shuffled with them to the door because I told them they couldn't miss the bus.

I wouldn't go out those doors with them, though. I couldn't handle it. I don't think they could handle it.

But, in all honesty, that's what  teacher lives for every year. Those bonds are worth our crappy paychecks and the weekends lost to grading essays.

And it's what I need to remember every day when I step foot in that classroom and start the lesson for the day - no matter how hard it hurts at the end of May.

Musings on a snow day

All weekend, they have been forecasting a huge snowstorm to move through the state. Polk County is going to be in a blizzard warning starting at noon today. But, the county my district is in (one over) isn't - just a winter storm warning. I still figured last night that this would at least get us a late start this morning before I went to bed because we are a rural school district. No dice. 

So, I got up this morning, cursing, because I was going to have to drive to school (although my route to school isn't typically horrid) and back when it was going to get bad. I'll be honest; I haven't gotten used to the stress of winter driving since we moved back. So, the thought of the 20-mile drive wasn't too thrilling. 

I double checked my email before I got in the shower. I had signed up for alert emails from the television stations even though we do have a phone tree. I usually get the emails before I get the call (just by a few minutes). No alerts. Poo.

I get out of the shower and see I have a voice mail. No school! The email got sent right after I got in the shower. The stinky thing was that I was up and awake. At 6:30. On a day when I could sleep in.

So, I've spent the last 2.5 hours being productive. 

• Caught up on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
• Worked on baby blanket No. 3. I'm almost halfway done!
• Started the oven cleaning (I shouldn't take credit for that; self-cleaning doesn't involve much from me).
• Wrote a blog post! (We all know what an accomplishment this is for me!)
• Started a new book (Incindiary by Chris Cleve; he also wrote Little Bee, which was excellent).

And that's not all that's on tap for today. Sammy needs to go on at least one walk today, and maybe I'll bake something. I also need to finish writing a unit test.

But, now, it's back to knitting.

Writing again ... and a bit whiny

It's Sunday. I like lazy Sundays. The past few have basically consisted of Jeremy and I sitting on the couch and reading. (We live on the edge, I know).

They spoiled me because that's not really an option today.

Unfortunately, I procrastinated to the last minute (not such a big surprise, really. I also claim that being a copy editor only exacerbated this horrible habit of mine because you get used to working under the gun) and now I have to bang out the methodology (how I did my classroom research) section of my research paper for my master's. It really isn't that bad. I just don't want to do it. I should be happy because this paper is the ONLY thing I have to do for this semester (my last!), and the entire paper (about 40 pages) will be done (minus editing/revising) by the end of February. Then, I'll spend the next month and a half fixing and tweaking. The good news is that I will have it sent off by April 13. So, I've only got a little more than 70 days left of this master's thing. :)

I also need to get groceries because Sunday is the shopping day. I hate getting groceries, but I like food.

I also have to work out today. I'm just too lazy to want to do that.

Luckily, I have a fantastic husband who offered to go grocery shopping. My paper is almost done (and it's not even noon!). I will leave to go run eventually.

The problem is I just want to get to work on the scads of baby presents that I need to get done. From last September until this June, I know 15 (FIFTEEN, wth?) people who had/will have a baby. It's getting ridiculous.

So, I'm now procrastinating some more by writing a blog. See, I'm really good at that...

Environment

Right now, it is my planning period.

The weird thing, I don't have much to do. I'm caught up on grading; my plans are done for next week (and I've got a skeleton for the week after that); no administrative stuff needs to be done.

And yet, there are many things I could be doing.

I could be working on my master's project. This would means more time to do what I want when I'm surrounded by all of my stuff at home, when I have the freedom to do what I choose to do.

But yet, I'm not.

I need to have a specific environment to write - or at least write well. My desk and my classroom aren't it. I need noise -- and not the white noise from the classroom next door or the geese/birds outside. I need TV/radio. I need Sammy putting his wiggly beagle body between me and my laptop.

It's too still here. My thoughts will be jumbled, and I won't be doing quality writing.

Plus, it's morning. I do not make quality stuff before noon.

This makes me think about the parameters I put on my kids. They have to produce a product on demand. It may not be the best environment for them.

Heck, I never wrote in class when I was in high school. I made it look like I did, but I did all of my stuff from the comfort of my couch or my bean bag.

It just makes me think a little more...