Ahh, the day before Thanksgiving. I really need the vacation. I've decided to take a break and not do any work over the four day weekend. I need to relax (as several of my students and friends could probably tell you!). The plan is to get some books read (what a concept - reading for fun!!), see a movie (maybe even two!) spend time with the family...hey, that sounds like it's exactly what a vacation should be.

Of course, I've just lied. Because I am taking one class of tests home to grade, because I need to hand those back on Monday morning. And I probably will bring home my stuff on the French Revolution so I can get those lessons set, at least so I have something to do in class on Tuesday morning. It would be unseemly to stand in front of my first period with no lesson whatsoever (and before you start to think that I have a five day weekend with no classes on Monday, I don't, we're on a block schedule, which means that I have my students every other day - sort of like even and odd days. So today we have 1st, 5th, 7th and 8th period, and on Monday we'll see 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th period. Yes, 8th period every day - it's a shorter, embedded period that we see every day. The theory is that we end up seeing them as much as our other classes over the course of the week. In reality, we see 8th period as much and then about an extra third, or so. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but we do see more of 8th period on average than our other classes. Hm, I think that there should be the end of a parenthesis around here somewhere. Ah, there it is -->)

So, apparently I'm babbling today. I can accept that.

My students are all working quietly at their desks on the American Revolution timelines. It's very nice when they work like this, makes me feel like I'm doing my job right. We'll see how 7th period is - they usually have more energy (having had a chance to have lots of sugar, plus it's over lunch, so before lunch they are hungry, after lunch they're hyper from all the sugar).