Slice 5

It's almost ten east coast and I am scrambling to slice. Not really! Last year my latest post was at 11:50 pm. I've had a crazy day at work and blew off the evening work I normally do by going to dinner with a friend after my workout.  The hardest thing about slicing is banishing the thought that I have to write something that matters every day.  I just need to remind myself that writing is hard and slicing is cultivating a writing habit every day at least that is my goal.

Today was a relatively good day, but a dangerous day for me.  If I really want to manage my disease well, I can't have days where I don't eat lunch. I know better!  I need to act better. There were students who needed me every minute of the day.  That is the gist of a teacher's life.  The hard part is finding balance and staking time for yourself, even in your workday!  There is always work and more work.

The work that I was happy to do today as a reading coach included---

1. Helping out a friend get testing for 400 kids started because I had the time and the flexibility in my schedule.
2. Registering students for ACT who would not normally choose to take it. If you haven't helped juniors and seniors through it lately, it takes a good hour to do it.
3. Working with a colleague to develop a lesson on literary analysis for ESOL students just because I said hello to her in the hall after school.
4. Making space for another student to come to our Skype visit on Friday with Jonathan Mayberry just because the teacher recognizes how much it will matter to this student.
5. Hanging out with a teacher friend (after work hours) and figuring out what to do with her students when I teach her class while she is out for a week.

What I know is that staying focused on the work that went well will keep me from dwelling on the work that was frustrating.  I just need to make sure that I am also working well for myself.