Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!  We had two and a half weeks off, so I was able to spend 6 days with my family in Virginia and then head up to New York.  The whole trip was an absolute blast! I got to see family members I hadn't seen in over a year and it was wonderful to just relax together and eat lots of good food.  NY was wonderful, of course- the best was going to the jazz clubs (saw Chuck Mangione) and seeing The Color Purple on Broadway (that was so amazing, we got tickets for the Lion King in two weeks).  New York has become so comfortable and familiar and I miss the city when I am away now- I talk about "flying home" no matter which direction I am traveling in.   I was dreading the winter but the cold is not so bad now that I've learned to stop trying to look cute and just dress to be warm. Although  I was so glad to wake up on Monday morning and just throw on a sundress and sandals for work instead of spending twenty minutes trying to layer!

I did not miss school at all but I wasn't dreading coming back, either.  As a whole, my days are pretty low-key and not stressful, so I was alright with having to work again.  The kids are always so calm after a long break, anyway, and things have been very calm and peaceful so far in January.

From now until the end of February is always the worst time of year to be a teacher in Florida (at least in grades 3-12).  Prep for the FCAT can be soooo stressful.  However, I feel like my school has had appropriate interventions in place since day one, and I don't anticipate a lot of scrambling around at the last minute or an inordinate amount of practice testing in the next few weeks.  We'll see, of course.  I am concerned for some of my kids but I know we are doing everything we can for them.  I don't feel like that every year- sometimes I feel like I have slacked off or been distracted by things in my personal life, or I think the admin has not provided the needed support- but this year, I truly believe we've done everything possible for these kids.  For that reason I will be able to sleep well at night regardless of how my kids do on the test.  That sounds melodramatic but I'm serious.  If you're a teacher you understand what it's like to lose sleep over someone else's child's test scores.  (And often, the teacher's degree of concern is inversely proportional to the actual parent's degree of concern). 

So, here we go into "crunch time" before standardized testing... let the adventure begin!!

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