Whatever happened to 9 to 5?

      Seriously.  Teaching is more like a 5 to 9 job.  My alarm goes off at 5:30 (I usually hit snooze a few times), I go to school, I teach and grade and plan all day, I come back to my apartment around 5, I keep planning and grading, and finally around 9:30 I take a minute or two for myself and get ready for bed.  The next morning, I do it all over again.  I don't mind being busy though.  It makes me feel accomplished and it makes the time pass by a little faster.  I do wish that I had a little more time to go out and see things.  By the time the weekend comes I'm usually too tired to do much.
      Over the long weekend, I spent Saturday afternoon shopping with my roommates.  I bought a new pink cardigan for Spring and wore it the very next day at church.  I did a little grocery shopping and a little more than a little skyping.  Monday on my day off I skyped some more, graded the tests my class took on Friday, and watched a couple movies.  Having something fun going on in the background makes it easier to focus.  I know it sounds backwards, but I've found that I work much better when there is something that I enjoy going on in the background.
      Last week was....a week.  My mentor was out of town on Tuesday, so I taught all day again.  That will be a regular thing soon so it's a good thing the student and I are getting used to it.  Wednesday I met with a parent about their student's grade on the test (she didn't do so hot).  Thursday I got observed by my supervisor and I felt really good about my lesson.  In fact, I kinda thought it rocked.  It wasn't perfect but I was so pumped afterwards.  Thursday was rough.  I've been having a hard time with the girl that didn't do well on her test.  It's not a recent thing, but it's gotten a lot worse since the test.  I felt like no matter how hard I tried and no matter what I did, I was never going to be able to respect me.  Friday I got a chance to talk to her and she admitted to not liking me. Um....OK but I still want her to respect me.  I didn't push the issue though.  Saturday I went back to school to help with the admissions interviews.  The best comparison for the process came from the parent of a child that we interviewed - speed dating.  The student would come in and the panel would ask them 5 questions, score them based on their answer, send them out, and call the parents in to ask them a couple questions.  The whole process was only supposed to take 15 minutes per student.  At one point, we were 15 minutes ahead.  I actually enjoyed spending my Saturday doing that.  I got to talk to some of my students more.  They even invited me to eat lunch with them.  How cute are they!  Sunday was Stake Conference.  I left the meeting pumped for General Conference from H. David Burton's talk and excited about being a woman from Richard G. Scott's talk.  April can't come fast enough for me now :)  I spent the rest of Sunday feeding myself spiritually.  I listened to a few conference talks, listened to hymns, and read Chronicles of Narnia.
      That brings us to today.  The girl that I've been having a hard time with starting talking back and swearing so I had to contact her parents.  I was busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest the rest of the school day.  It was such a weird Monday.  Everyone was surprisingly hyper.  Someone must have slipped a little extra sugar in their coffee this morning.  Now I'm back at my apartment getting ready to write a couple lesson plans and hopefully go to bed a little early. Three more hours and it's quitting time. :)