The Between Period

Anyone ever notice how school is just kind of painful in-between vacations?  A week off for Thanksgiving and only a couple weeks later to another two week break.  Of course these few weeks are among the most stressful weeks since the semester is ending which means that all grades are due.  Add in the holiday stress of whether or not you've gotten a gift for everyone and making sure that you have a Christmas Program put together for the ward Christmas Party while your fiancee tries to do a thousand things for the choir and band concert that she is putting on, and you know what it was like.
We came back to Pinon a couple of days late which was the plan all along, and it was a good plan because we would have gotten stuck in the weather if we had tried coming back on time.  Some teachers who like gossip were thinking that we had eloped or that we weren't coming back.  Nope, sorry to disappoint but we planned it, gave notice, and had sub plans ready.
One particularly painfully annoying day I got a twenty minute lecture on how I was doing my grading wrong, a twenty minute lecture that could have been given in two minutes, since I was at that time putting in grades which needed to be done.  As soon as that person was gone my principal came in because he was informed that there was another problem with my grading.  I love the man, he is great, he is a good boss, but at that moment the last thing I wanted to hear about was grading.  Especially since the problem he was talking about had mostly been fixed and if I could have had another three minutes it would have been completely fixed.  I hate grading, I pretty much hate most things that are related to grading, the idea of being talked at by multiple people about it does not thrill me.  For the entire rest of the between period I was stressed, grumpy, and wanting it to be Christmas already.
The best thing about grading this time around though was that I had Pam to help me which meant that I got it done early this time around instead of needing to work till midnight every night like I needed to at the end of last quarter.  Having the grading done meant that I could work better with the kids to get their grades up before the end of the semester.  Yes we are on both quarters and semesters, yes it confused me quite a lot at first, but most people seem to get it and I came around to it eventually.
Not everything was bad though, I had a lot of fun with my kids in US History.  We reviewed for our final by competing within the table groups for the answers to the questions.  The kids really got into it and it got pretty competitive.  My World History classes did a similar game but as a class.
My World History classes also presented their culture day presentations which were very nicely done for the most part, I was pretty harsh on a lot of groups though.  I made the boys wear ties, and therefore had to teach most of my students how to wear a tie, especially since a lot of the girls wanted to wear them too.  One group brought in sushi which was absolutely wonderfully, especially since they decided to use cooked bacon or cooked shrimp as opposed to raw fish.  I was glad that I skipped breakfast that morning since it made more room for bacon sushi.  I LOVE culture day.  Last quarter a group of girls decided to cook fry bread for all my classes except first hour, poor first hour always seems to get the shaft on stuff like that.
I was also happy that I got most of the quarter planned out, I know basically what I'll be covering every week.  I really did get quite a lot accomplished in those weeks back.
The concert was a very nice event.  I video taped it so Pam could watch it later.  She directed both choirs and the three bands that performed as one big band.  The concert had several teachers in tears and many more wanting Pam to teach them her classroom management style.
As teachers we had a Christmas Party which was fun and the last day before break was a mud day, which meant that while the kids had an extra day on their vacation we still had to come into work, the good news though was that we were free to go at 12.  Pam decided to stay a couple more hours and get a couple more things done, but I felt incredibly unmotivated to the point that I found things to occupy my time like a 45 minute call to Mom and a trip down to district to take care of some other matters.
I was finally cheerful again the break was here and then... I spent an hour looking for my birth certificate or social security card and could find neither.  I went from happy to stressed and upset pretty quickly.  We went to the DMV without those things and got my SUV registered but could not renew my license.  My Dad decided to call and talk to me about it that night, which I was not ready to do.  Sorry Dad.
The good news for now, Christmas is over, the next break isn't until April, which means I can have better focus with the students on school, and it means that Pam and I have our work cut out for us for the wedding.  April 23rd, it's on its way.