One of the worst elements of teaching is the return after a long break. And yes, we did “virtual remote days” the previous week, but this past Monday (the 13th) was the first day in 24 that I had been in a classroom.
And boy did it SUCK.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being in the classroom and being with my students.
However.
I never sleep well the night before the first day back and, true to form, I woke up at least three times during the night believing I had overslept. The entire day moved in slow motion and the kids were just as zombie-ish as I was. And that was only Monday.
The rest of the week I had to deal with an allergy-driven bout of vertigo, so much to the point where I couldn’t drive myself to school on Wednesday and Thursday. Thankfully, I have a wonderful friend and colleague who lives not too far from me and drove me to school.
The most I could do on a computer without getting extra motion sickness was to intermittently look at assignments submitted by students. By yesterday, things had finally settled down and I was able to drive myself to school. We spent most of the week reviewing for exams, which are to take place Tuesday through Friday.
Exam week is one of those interesting times. There’s no real routine, but there’s a ton of work to do in ensuring the exams are graded. For me, at least, it’s also the last time I see half of my kids in the classroom for a while. Once January 27th arrives, it’s a new semester and I trade out half of my students for new ones. It’s an interesting dynamic, but it comes quickly and unlike many of my colleagues, I have to prepare all new course policies and syllabi for the new group of students.
Today, though, is visiting with the family and watching football. The Eagles play tomorrow, but today is to sit and watch the #1 seeds in both conferences play and see if they truly earned their standing as such. Hopefully with no further physical ailments, daily writing on this Substack will take off in earnest.