Midweek Confessions

It's that time again y'all.  And as, always, definitely go check out E at www.emyselfandi.com, because she's adorable and there's a whole link to other Midweek Confessors for your viewing pleasure.

1. I hate doing laundry.  Hate hate hate it.  Always have.  I tend to either (a) put it off until I have no more suitable options or (b) wash it, wait 2 days, fold it, wait until I need to do laundry again, put it away.  It drives my husband crazy. It drove him so crazy that instead of doing our laundry, I do mine, and he does his.  It drove my parents crazy.  It's something I just can't seem to change.  For example, 2 weekends ago, I started doing laundry, and ran out of time.  I left the dirty whites in a pile in our bedroom.  They are still there

2. I misplaced my glasses on today.  The ones I can't legally drive without.  I dug up an old pair that I keep in the bottom of my glove box.  I, in my frustration, worried that maybe my husband accidentally threw them away when he was taking out the trash.  I still haven't found them

3. I am ready for a snow day.  Not in the, I can't wait for winter way, because I hate the cold.  In the, I really need a break from my kids and work way.  We have a 2 hr early dismissal on Friday, which is great except that we have staff development.  We don't get to go home early.

How's your week going?

Midweek Confessions

For those of you who don't know, E over at emyselfandi does this hilarious midweek confessions series. I'm linking up with her to dish out some self-deprication. (And, E, I'll add one of your cute buttons tomorrow...)

1. I did not cook a meal once last week. We ate out every. Single. Day. Granted, one night I was out with D's mom & Nama. But still. We ate a lot of fast food. 

2. I also didn't do any dishes or unload the dishwasher all week. It took a long time on Saturday to go through a week's worth of breakfast, lunch, & water bottles. 

3. I left my laptop at home yesterday. As in, omgwhatamigoingtodo all my notes and prep stuff is on my laptop, which is 45 minutes away and class starts in 3 minutes. Luckily, only one student knew. She happened to be standing in front of me when I reached down into my bag and panicked. Today, she didn't bring in her homework. Guess who didn't collect homework today, largely as a result? Also luckily, my freshman class had a search through the book assignment that took them 30 minutes, so I had time to remake my French Revolution notes, which were more boring, but at least they existed!

4. I'm typing this in bed. At 9:45. Because I just can't stay staring at my computer working on grades or the next unit any longer. 

5. I cuss myself every time I give a project. Really, the technology challenged of the high school seem to land in my class every semester. 

6. My flower bed is a garden of grass calf-high. And I'm cool with that. My new goal: save enough money to totally rip it out and start over. Maybe pour concrete down to keep the wire grass out next time. I really just don't remember to weed anything. Or water it. Oops. 

Have some funny things to share: Confess away below!!!!

9/11

I teach high schoolers. I teach sophomores. I teach history. And every year on 9/11 I spend 15-20 minutes of very valuable early-in-the-year time talking with my current group of sophomores about what 9/11/2001 was like for me. 

Because I was a sophomore. 

Because it was real life for me. 

Because it was horror for our entire country. 

Because sometimes we need to set aside our standardized testing and our stresses to make sure they know everything they need to know, and take a moment to teach them from our eyes. 

Because I want them to self reflect on what they remember. On what they experienced. 

Today was eye opening for me. Today, for the first time in my teaching career, I had this chat with people who were toddlers when 9/11 happened. Yes, they know where they were. But they were 2 or 3. A couple were 4. One, and only one, was 5. A large part of this year's 7th grade class were born into a post 9/11 world. They don't know what it's like I live in a world where there wasn't 9/11. They didn't have to be told what the WTC was when it was attacked. It never was standing for them. 

And today, I reflected on my experience, and showed, as I always do, the today show coverage. It takes Matt Lauer 12 minutes from the time he says on air there is breaking news to the time he says we must suspect that something sinister is going on. And that doesn't include the commercial break they took to tell him and gather their video feed and phone call contact. And I choked back tears. 

I hope you reflected today, particularly in light of the current political sphere, and the tensions the global leaders are under. 

I also hope that you remember that we banded together in support of strangers, because we are Americans. We showed each other love, compassion, and heart. Slowly, as days have gone by, as kids were born, and lives were lived, we have forgotten that compassion. We have forgotten that love. 

Let's all try to find it every day. 

2,996 people died on 9/11/2001 

Let's find that love in honor of them.