Happy Monday, y'all. I survived our first full week back at school, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't exhausted by the time we got to Friday. After two weeks off, it was harder than I expected to get back in the swing of things. This three-day weekend was a much-needed reset. Not only was I able to get some good rest, but I got caught up on my grading (I know, I know. It's only a week in. How could I possibly be behind already?!) and finally got the last of our Christmas decorations stored away. I also finished the first book in my One-Woman Book Club.

It's felt like my house has been in a state of disarray since we got out of school for Christmas break. The holidays are always hectic to begin with but then throw in an unexpected illness and things just get a little crazy. By the time I felt well enough to deal with the mess of everyday life, it was time to go back to school so it didn't get dealt with.

I'm glad to be back on a schedule, though. As an adult, I've never gotten to experience pre-scheduled time off that didn't count as vacation time, so that's been an interesting adjustment for me. A good one, but an adjustment all the same in that I don't really know what to do with my time. I have to admit, though, that the breaks are absolutely necessary, and unless you're a teacher or have worked in a school setting, you won't understand it.

The first week and two days have been fairly good, I think, with the exception of this past Friday when we did not have internet the entire day. Thankfully, I don't base my lessons and activities solely around the internet, so I wasn't thrown for too big of a loop, but this was the one day that I had planned on doing one internet-based activity, so I had to come up with a backup to fill that suddenly free time. We're finishing up a unit on a historical fiction piece this week, then next week we'll be starting our novel for this 9 weeks. I'm excited about reading this one with my students. It's one that I think they'll all be able to relate to, and I hope they enjoy it as much as I did when I first read it.

We've been doing a lot of work with writing since coming back from the break, and it's the type of writing that I've based my career on, so I really have been feeling in my element as I give these kids the type of scaffolding that I've always provided for the reporters and producers I've worked with over the years. In fact, it's been kind of cool to be able to share some of my own work with them as examples, and it's even cooler to watch their writing evolve and get better with each assignment.

I don't really have anything else to share, so I guess I'll wrap things up. Have a wonderful week!