I have no excuse, and many excuses for my silence of late.

For the most part it has to do with the start of school. I know it’s the same every year, but I forget how hard it can be.

Which sounds like a whine, but is really just a fact of life.

I think part of it has to do with not having worked this summer, I’m finding it much more difficult to get back into the swing of things.

I started back to work about the time that I wrote my last entry. This hadn’t been the plan, but I was asked to take part in a couple of workshops and to come in and interview applicants to be our teaching assistants.

From that point on things didn’t seem to stop.

We hired some great assistants, but still have one position that needs to be filled. This is not a good thing, as it means that the fifth graders don’t have the math help that they need. I don’t have any time in my schedule to lend a hand, as I’m running from room to room for reading and written language. Which happen to be the two subjects that I like the most. (That is seeing I can’t teach social studies which is my all time favorite thing.)

I am getting anxious about not having an assistant in place, as is my principal. The Ice Queen isn’t doing anything about it, whereas the principal and I are beating the bushes to see if we can find someone.

We thought that we had filled the position, but the person turned us down at the last minute. I can’t blame her. The assistants get paid slave wages. Granted they don’t have to take homework or do anything that requires time out of school, but they don’t get paid anywhere near what they’re worth.

Not much has changed as far as the day to day stuff is concerned.

I have a crazy schedule – which is a monster of my own creation – but I like it for the most part. I’m working most often with three teachers that I really like, so it makes for a pleasant morning.

I also have my own little reading group of two little girls. They are reading on an early second grade level, so I have to design a program for them. I’m loving it. It’s like my afternoon ladies tea group. They are just adorable and I’m having so much fun thinking of things to do and read.

Paperwork has become an even larger nightmare. The state has changed all the forms that we use, and the Ice Queen hasn’t bothered to provide us with any training in this paperwork. I’m in a bit of a panic over this. I had a meeting yesterday, which means that I need to use the new form. I should have had it all done by now, but am struggling to figure out what to do on several sections of the new form.

But if I get yelled at for not doing it correctly I will take it as a grievance to the union (something I have NEVER done), as the training should have been provided to us last spring. The Ice Queen has decided to offer the training to us in a 15 week after school course. I’m refusing to take this, it is on Tuesdays from 3:30-6:30 and is going to cost us about $100 each. This is to pay HER salary through a local college. I refuse to subsidize her already substantial income.

This training should only take a couple of hours and should have been provided for free. Several of us are refusing to take the class.

I am taking another course (that doesn’t cost me anything but time and effort). And this is in a topic called Differentiated Instruction. It sounds far more interesting, and is spread out over a variety of days and weeks. I do have to give up a couple of Saturdays to go to class, but that’s fine as far as I’m concerned.

We all have to take classes in order to keep up our certification and to get "professional development points", so class taking, and workshop attending is a necessary evil.

In actuality, I like taking classes so I don’t mind them as long as they are interesting and have some sort of practical application.

I’m also teaching adult education again. Introduction to the PC started last week, and I have three more classes to go. Once again I’ve got an interesting mix of adults – and a button pusher. There’s one in every class.

The chorus may well be no longer in existence after this Tuesday, so I’ll have to write more about that later. It’s long and involved.

And very sad for me to think about.

The cat is still sick – another long story for a later date. He’s now requiring weekly trips to the vet.

Michael is getting married in two weeks. Which is leaving me with tons of confusion and mixed emotions. I still hear from him, I guess he plans to stay in my life, but my heart hurts a lot when I think of him now. I don’t know if it’s a good thing that he’s still a part of my life or not.

I have had two things I’ve written published recently. One was an article for a Sweet Adeline’s publication, the other was a teacher’s guide about ancient Egypt. Neither one paid anything (although I did get a class set of the magazine that I wrote the teacher’s guide for), but it’s still cool to see my name as a published author.

As far as this journal is concerned, I make no promises about how frequently I’ll be writing entries.

I would like to get back to writing daily, but I don’t know how realistic that will be until work settles down some.

I’ve also found it increasingly difficult to write if I’m in a "down" frame of mind. Part of that has to do with a rather mean spirited e-mail that I received from someone who read some of my entries.

I just will have to take each day as it comes I guess.