Happy Teacher New Year!

If I remembered to drink water at school I could both stay hydrated and work on my strength training.

 
I began my 26th year of teaching this week.  NOTE:  I shamelessly encourage people to tell me I look too young to have been teaching that long.

Now it is Friday and I am sitting on the couch unable to move.  My feet feel like they did when I was 8 months pregnant.  I am considering starting a new family dinner ritual for my children called, "Scavenger Hunt."  (Apparently my daughter has already started playing because she just walked by eating a flour tortilla.)    I am dehydrated because I forgot to drink water at school.  I SO admire teachers who commit to drinking water at school.  They courageously arrive every day armed with large water containers and leave hydrated with glowing skin and freely flowing digestive tract.

Susie and I have SO much in common.

I don't make resolutions in January because I consider September my fresh start and craft lofty resolutions at the start of each school year.  The new markers, unmarked composition notebooks and clean pink erasers leave me giddy with anticipation of a great school year.  I would like to share my 2016-2017 School Year Resolutions with you.

1.  I will renew efforts to pack fresh lunches and not continually resort to the convenient and strangely delicious microwaveable bags of Indian style chick peas.  There is something very sad about a teacher, hunched over her desk, eating from a bag.

2,  I will not stampede to the Teacher's Lounge every time it is announced that there is leftover cake. 

3.  I will remember to come home with enough energy to give my 3 kids and needy cat.  I don't want the kids telling their therapists one day - "What I remember most about my mother is how she would come home every day from work and just lay on the floor listening to pod casts.  She didn't seem capable of any love."

4.  I will remember to keep an extra wardrobe at school.  Tank tops and beach balls for when my classroom is hot.  Fleece hoodies and fingerless gloves for when it is cold.  This will also help with my resolution of cutting back on dramatic emails to the custodian about classroom temperature.

5.  Since "sitting" is the new "cigarette," I will briskly walk around the classroom every 8 to 10 minutes instead of rolling around the classroom on my padded computer chair.

It is a well documented fact that at least one student will yell out "You're a wizard, Harry!" whenever Harry Potter is mentioned. 
 

 6.  I will stop telling students I spent the entire summer reading the Harry Potter series.  Apparently no one wants to hear about it, so I won't even mention my Harry Potter coloring books.

I am sure these resolutions will ebb and flow throughout the school year, but I think it is a good start. 

Eydie