T.G.I.F.

I just want to say that this week was easily one of the most intense and work-heavy of my career. Getting 40 seniors to each get two excellent 1500 words essays in, especially when the deadline was preceded by seven snow days in the previous couple of weeks, was quite a challenge. And I got all of them, though the last one was emailed to me at 9:50 a.m. and the last correction was made in the early afternoon. Next year, I look forward to doing it differently - though the snow days pretty much eliminated the chance to work on them as planned throughout the month of February.

The deadline has pretty much made me work 15-hour days every day this week, and the weekend could not be more needed. I'm going to hit the sack by 9:30 tonight, and didn't even muster the energy to go to the requisite Happy Hour. Baseball season starts on Monday. National Board stuff (which I've not done very getting a start on) are due the last day of March. I'm starting two new units in my two classes on Monday, both units I haven't taught before. One is on a 600-word novel, East of Eden, that I read for the first time this summer. Loved it, but it's so much better to teach books you know really well. My throat hurts and I feel woefully out of shape. This is a very, very busy time for Epiphany in Baltimore.