Rather Odd People Indeed

Gosh I'm happy right now!

I am fucking _exhausted_, there were two days this week I had to get up at 5 so I could finish prep before work, I think I'm averaging four hours of sleep a night for the last week, my doctor would definitely not be thrilled if he knew how I was attempting to be in surgery "recovery", but gosh I'm happy right now!

I'm happy because school is humming nicely and four out of my five classes are gonna be pretty smooth and the fifth one at least is one of the ones that's cotaught so Maggie and I can tag in and out of the worst of it and commiserate after school.

I'm happy because some of the strategies we're trying this year are Actually Working, and yes yes, it is extremely early days, but like, group roles actually help the kids step up and work together and gives them better structure??? enough peer pressure and they all actually use the phone bag in the back of the room??? Amazing.

I'm happy because yesterday I got the most formal email in my life and I am _delighted_ because the entire essence was just "yo Teach', I wanna see if I'm ready to take Alg2 at the same time as Geometry, see you during your student hours to chat more?". Bless weird 14 year olds who are trying so hard to be Professional Adults.

I'm also happy (I am _ecstatic_) because today I got to watch a student struggle through a problem with her group, ask for help twice and both times get variations on "what have you tried so far, okay you're on the right track, keep going [and no actual help]" and then the third time tentatively showed me her answer and I was able to give her a fistbump for nailing it and she was *delighted* to have solved this problem she didn't think she could do.

I'm happy because my dance class last night spontaneously had four brand-new-never-done-any-dance beginners, all of whom came as a little cohort as friends, and they all seemed to do a lot of smiling and laughing and having fun, and three out of the four wrote their email addresses to maybe come back in the future? It was wild, it felt great to me, I hope it worked for my other dancers too.

I'm happy because today I managed to do all my copying for Monday after school *and* leave by 4pm, which meant I could go down to First Friday and hang at the pub with coworkers for a couple hours and get some real valuable social time. A science teacher I haven't seen in ages gave me a super bright "HI!" when I showed, and I had a marvelous talk about how great our union and new contract is with a pair of brand-new English teachers, and [one of] the art teacher[s] I have a crush on was just leaving when I arrived and was all like "oh dang :(" and then made a half move towards me and a very tentative "do you hug" and I was like, my friend, you have absolutely nailed the vibe, yes, I love hugs, this is great.

I'm happy because I got to walk home from that with my work-bestie and we had a great conversation, including mutual flailing about his super-intimidating and organized wife and my super-intimidating and organized metamours and how it's awesome to have these people in our life who love us but also aaaaah! I still don't think I have any interest in being full out as polyam at work, but I am _thrilled_ to have a few actual work _friends_ who I can be open to sometimes.

And I'm happy because while I have a ton of grading I should do this weekend, I don't have much, and I get to hang out with Austin and my roommates and rest and be mellow.

The world is a shithole, let's love each other and have fun. <3

~Sor

MOOP!

First day of school!

Here are some patterns that I did today that I really like:

*Got out of bed at the first hit of my alarm.

*Got the dishes out of the dishwasher before eating breakfast

*Read book on the bus to and from work

*Zeroed my work email inbox for the day

*Dealt with any dishes hanging out (including the handwash stuff) when I got home from work

Here are some things that aren't patterns but also got done today:

*Hung out with Clayton, my work-bestie, for a goodly chunk of time

*Had very productive Geometry work-group, which is especially nice because it's basically the same people as last year, but was a WAY less contentious first meeting

*Spent over an hour chatting with my new mentee, who is _shiny_ new to teaching and I really hope continues to maintain their optimism and enthusiasm and stuff. I think they will, they're excitable but also in their late twenties so not quite as naïve as some.

*Did some of the HR paperwork which is especially fun because I ignored it all last year. This includes watching the entire Conflict of Interest training, which is an hour of unskillable, un-speedable modules which must be watched in order and if you leave one in the middle you have to restart it from the beginning. I also read the ten minute summary which I'm pretty sure sufficed to do the thing, but I have strong feelings about actually reading the shit work makes me sign.

*To be clear, I read the summary first and watched the video at home while playing Stardew Valley, I'm not paid enough to give _that_ my full attention.

*Attended a bunch of meetings and stuff, mostly fine-to-good. As I have previously observed, the fewer people in the meeting the more useful and interesting it gets.

So it's a pretty good first day! I am feeling cautiously optimistic about the fact that the school has not introduced dozens of all new structures that will definitely fix everything, and instead is working to improve and refine the existing structures. (Okay, there is one new structure, but it is to replace an old one that stopped existing, so it should be the same ideas within a slightly different workflow. And even that, the principal was like "yeah, I expect it to be good this year and awesome three years from now" so she at least claims to understand change takes time.)

Being temporarily disabled is a drag, but having the cane felt both good as a visual indicator, and genuinely useful for any of the standing around. My boss absolutely fished for details and got as much as "yep, it was something I needed and it will heal soon". (Clayton on the other hand got "my gyno wouldn't let me keep my uterus once it was out but he took pictures for me!" and this is part of the difference between Real Friend and Boss).

It was nice to see all my coworkers, including some unexpected heart-lifting delights. It turns out I do like the adults I work with and not just the kids!

First day with kids is Wednesday (one class for two hours of orientation) and then Thursday I see all five of my classes bang-in-a-row. I can live with the exhausting Thursdays because they mean I have a prep last block again, which is so deeply superior to having a prep penultimate block like I did last year (and therefore having a short time to rest before having to go back and teach more which is so hard to drag yourself to).

For now, I am going to get some ice cream with Austin, and then continue to take it easy for the rest of the evening. Maybe I'll even get to bed at early-bedtime instead of late.

I hope the things you do bring you joy as well.

~Sor
MOOP!