Surviving November

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted.  Last week I was off for a glorious 9-day Thanksgiving break and tried to avoid thinking about school.  Even with that ridiculously long break, November is still consistently the toughest month of the school year.  In fact this was the first November that I didn't start planning my next career move.  What makes November so crazy?  I'm not completely sure, but here are some contributing factors:


- The honeymoon is over
The ice has been broken, personalities are coming out, and as the course difficulty increases, stress sometimes brings out the worst in people (myself included).

- Parent-Teacher Conferences
I actually really enjoy these, but teaching from 8-12, meeting with parents in 10-minute intervals from 2-8, and then getting back in at 7 the next morning to teach again is exhausting (especially for an introvert!).

- Senior Retreat
Every faculty member goes on retreat with one of the classes.  The seniors go to a retreat house for a brief 27 hour retreat (Monday afternoon and Tuesday).  Only 60 seniors go on each retreat and it's actually pretty low-key and relaxing.  The downside is having to make sub plans and grade the papers that I left for the students to do to make sure they actually learned something while I was gone.  I also tend to be wiped out for the rest of the week after getting very little sleep on a Monday.  I really do not function well without adequate rest (how did I survive college?).

- Many consecutive 5-day weeks!
This year the administration got rid of all of our Professional Days (instead we get an hour of team planning every Wednesday morning).  Having one day a month to get caught up and get a break from the students was rejuvenating.  I don't think I realized how much those days helped with sanity until they were gone.

Well, all that is behind me now for another year.  Just two weeks until exams and then Christmas break!