February is half over. Spring break is at the end of March. School finishes in June. Like many other teachers, I do a lot more then teach my classes (which can be overwhelming in its self). This semester might be my busiest on record. A 6/5s assignment, a family with two little ones, a house in constant need of upkeep and repair, a board position on the local educational technology committee (SDCUE), several side web page projects to help supplement my income, my dad’s retirement, a newish prep next year, and six units in my masters program. Luckily I turned down a couple opportunities that would have swamped me even more.
The biggest obstacles seem to be related to graduate school. In one class, a partner and I are taking on a client to develop a web-based marketing and instructional tool. The expectation is that we spend at least 75 hours each working on it. I guess that is not too terribly significant, but I do like spending some time with my wife and children. I’m also doing a special study where I’m going to be developing a second wiki-based project that I started in a seminar class a couple weeks ago. If all goes well, I will co-author an article to be published in an education technology publication.
The only small sign of relief is that I have a student teacher taking over two of my world history classes. While it will eventually allow me to actually have a little prep time this semester, it is hard to give up classes that I have developed a good rapport with, right at the time when the curriculum becomes so much more compelling and interesting.
I guess the whole point to this entry is that I am busy. I have a half dozen draft posts saved in blogger, but no time to develop them. In fact, I should probably be sleep or grading or reading about how to be a consultant now. Good night.