Today marks the 7th day of summer vacation (11th if you're counting weekend days) and we've spent 5 of them (7 if you're counting weekend days) in Palm Springs where the weather is a sun scorching 110 degrees.
I had planned the vacation to start right after school ended so we could all "decompress" from this past semester of student teaching. Yes, even though I was the only one teaching, it was a tough semester for everyone in my household. Air Boss juggled full-time work (not to mention some pretty stressful project deadlines and meetings) and full-time parenting. The kids had to make some adjustments too (dirty socks to school one day because I didn't have time to do laundry, late dinners or Mackey D's for dinner, no parent or family representative for "Someone Special Day" at school.... a story for another time as poor 'Shroom was eating all by himself).
I wanted this vacation upfront - at the beginning of summer - so we could spend some time as a family, even if we were in the middle of a desert in the summer. As you can see, we did a bit of swimming (or splashing around in the pool). We could go swimming several times a day if we wanted to as our swim suits/trunks would dry in the sun in less than a half hour.
Yay for summers!
Reality settled in our first or second day back. We went out to eat at a local restaurant and as we were leaving the restaurant, I heard say "Hey! That's Mrs. Y__!" I turned around in response and it was one of my math students. I chatted with this former student for a bit and then got in my car.
It's not like I'm trying to block out my student teaching experience but I've had a couple of nightmares since leaving the school. One of the nightmares was while we were on vacation in Palm Springs. I woke up in the middle of the night after having dreamed that it was the fall and the school called me and asked me why I wasn't in class with the students. Found out in my dream that I hadn't passed my PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers) and had to do my student teaching all over again. Another dream/nightmare was that I was stuck in one of my observation classrooms (which was done at another local high school) and trying to teach while students were throwing books at me.
I think this dream was triggered after seeing one of my observation students in the grocery store the other day. And this student was a student who had a very unpleasant attitude in the classroom.
Anyway, no need to further ruminate on these unpleasant scenarios. Summer is here and let's focus on that!
1 comment:
Woohoo! Yeah summer is right! I pray you can decompress and rediscover your husband and kids after such a stressful few years (not just last semester). Try not to get sunburned! No more nightmares! And as Pumba says, you gotta leave your past behind you........
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