I haven't fallen off the face of the earth

I'm just writing to say that I'm still here and I'm sorry I'm not updating much. I am no longer at my second job (tutoring after school), but still really busy. I've started teaching an introductory TV production class, which is a TON of work and still trying to take form.

I'm also trying to attend drama rehearsals as often as possible (to help support the program I used to run), stay after school to help students, keep up with grading and planning (doing a terrible job on that despite regular 12+ hour days!) and spend time with the husband who somehow still wants to be married to me despite being utterly put upon.

Today I went to inservice training for our new textbooks. I usually am not a textbook teacher at all. I use them mostly as a sort of anthology for my students. So far this year we've done one unit on short stories using the textbook and one day we read a Ray Bradbury short story. That's it. But after today I'm almost convinced to let the textbook and additional materials decide a lot of my curriculum. I know my ideas require my students to think more and they're more interesting, but it's so much easier to just do what the textbook suggests. And I'm so tired right now.

I'm sure what will actually happen is that I'll incorporate some of the lessons into my curriculum, but continue to research and work my butt off planning my own units. I have too much guilt to just go "by the book" because I know most curriculum doesn't allow for real thinking. Darn masters degree!

That's all the energy I have tonight. I miss Buffy every Tuesday. New Buffy. Sigh.