For the Last Time

Hopefully this is the last time I will report being sick for the season. It has been a bit ridiculous. Finally I have a cough that is a bit more productive than usual, so I must be getting rid of a sickly winter. The weather is finally warming up, a month too late. I think my health will begin to improve after I get over this latest cold.

I didn't call in sick at school because teaching has become rather easy. The system I developed for keeping track of behavior problems and giving grades for work attitude is working amazingly well. There is a ton of structure now in my lessons at WolfertPRO, and the kids respond like a dream. I don't need to raise my voice and can take care of other work that needs to be done during the lessons. This means that where I would have called in sick before, now I can come to school because it is not so draining. It has taken me almost two years to figure this out, and now it is time to move on to a different job with new challenges, but I suppose that is how life works.

Speaking of the new job, it was a hectic couple days. Monday was the funeral of a colleague, so we missed an hour that I thought we had - this caught be by surprise. The whole school gathered along the driveway, everyone holding a white rose, and as the funeral procession drove by the roses made their way to the top of the hearse. It was a nice touch. Many people left early that day, and as such, my bike got locked away so I had to walk home.

The next day was filled with problems. The room I was scheduled for had a dysfunctional projector, so I found another room for a couple hours. Then I had to fill in for someone who was sick downstairs, and when I came back upstairs the room I was in had a computer that wouldn't work, so I switched back to the old one. This lesson was a difficult one anyway - I had two days packed into one because of the cancellations from Monday, now we were reduced in time, without a beamer, and my coach was observing all of this. I suppose it was good that she saw a really chaotic lesson. I made it through and felt a sense of accomplishment at the end, but it wasn't much fun.

Naomi goes to Amsterdam for her Dad's birthday today. She found him a really nice present in our attic - a magazine from around the year he was born with an article about the neighborhood where he grew up! He will love it. We are really looking forward to reading all the other magazines from that time period that she found up there. Speaking of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum, considered now the best in the world, just opened up after about 10 years of restoration. We will have to go soon...just not today.