Resolutions

So, I finally finished report cards and can now bring you this---what is sure to be thrilling---blog post.

I know, you’ve been on the edge of your seat just waiting… 

I actually do have some great ideas for posts, but I keep adding them to a list because I kind of chose a bad time to start a blog.  I mean, conferences start this week and Thanksgiving is after that.  With all the busy-ness, I haven’t had time to update…BUT, I want you to come back, so promise I’ll be better soon-ish.  That is a December resolution: take the blog-world by storm! Or at least, truly enter it.

As a teacher, my resolutions have never come at the beginning of January.  Rather, they come at the end of a school year (what I’ll do better next year), the end of a hard day (what I’ll do better tomorrow), during some inspiring professional development (what I’ll do better next week), and at conference time (what I’ll do better next trimester).  So, here I am with conferences loaming and about a million resolutions of what I need to do better at next trimester.

For example: writing.  I’d get more specific for you, but honestly, I need to teach EVERYTHING about writing better than how I am teaching it now.  This is all glaringly apparent after thumbing through the kids’ notebooks, assignments, and published/prompt pieces and taking copious notes on how they are progressing with each standard. 

Yikes!  How does it always creep up on me like that…how atrocious their daily work can be!?!?  When I’m teaching and they’re responding and when I’m roving or conferring I am always so impressed with my little authors.  But THEN…the horror of seeing a notebook full of one-sentence “I like…” and “I went…” “stories.  Or page after page of “I love my ____.  I rilly rilly love ____. We hav so muth fun I love ___ so muth.”

So, resolutions for writing after conference time:
*Plan for it, instead of winging it...
*Confer or rove every day...
*Keep up on assessments-type activities...
*Use more authentic/mentor texts for teaching.
*Let students share and respond to one another’s work more.
*Find ways to inspire quality writing (I’m thinking each time we publish, I will type the stories of kids who wowed me in one way or another and they can illustrate their book and put it in the class library.  If that goes well, I might allow them to submit other pieces they think are worthy to “the editor”…that’ll be me…for review and possible publication).
*Find a way…maybe kidblog?... to let them type on the computer every now and again…to get ready for computer-based assessments in a couple years. (Anyone know any good websites or programs for this?)

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Anyway, update on the KinderCoaster baby efforts:  I started round three of Clomid. 150mg!!  50mg the first round was annoying, but tolerable.  100mg the second round was awful!  Stomach cramps & back pain, hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, and mood swings.  Oh! The mood swings!  I felt like a crazy person.  I’m pretty sure my ovaries looked like this:

(Get it? Angry birds because they can’t lay eggs?)

It was so bad that I was pretty hesitant about 150 and actually was feeling nervous-sick in the couple days prior to starting the pills.  In the moments before I took them, my husband (JT), gave me a hug and said, “I’ll miss you.”  We both promised to remember that whatever happened in the next 30ish days, we’d still love each other.  I was breathing all heavy-like and closing my eyes, trying to talk myself into it…like I do when I prepare to take a shot (I HATE shots…haven’t had one in years!)

 

I took them.  My tongue fought it for awhile, so they had that nasty taste that you get when a cheap non-coated pill doesn’t go down on the first try (except these little puppies aren’t cheap).

 

Tonight I took the final 3 pills of the 5 day regimen.

 

I’m still waiting.
 

For the inevitable horror that will ensue.

But, nothing is really happening yet and I am very close to positive that my side-effects were almost instantaneous with the last two doses.  So, what gives?  I mean, I shouldn’t be upset that I feel fine, but I kind of am.  Maybe upset isn’t the right word…how about worried?  Like, why don’t I feel like $*#!?  Is it working?  Did my angry ovaries just up and explode last time around?  That’s a joke…but seriously, can that happen?

I have totally been dreading the side effects, but I kind of wish I could just feel crappy for a little while so I know that something is happening in there…you know?

I know.  Resolution: stop being such a masochist.

So, let's hear it...what are your November resolutions??