Work Work Work

Much of this weekend was spent doing homework. I stayed in Friday night and worked from about 8-midnight and then after pilates and some shopping at the adidas store with my roomie yesterday, I spent another evening working from about 3:30-9:30 or so (with some tv show watching mixed in with reading). I am surprised by how much homework I have already even though it was only the first week of class. Thankfully, my qualitative research class is really interesting and the books are not difficult to get through. I think that my dissertation research will be qualitative so I feel like everything I am learning will be directly applicable to that. All the reading is time consuming, but so far t hasn't been too painful!

So far in that class we have focused on observing and have done a few activities focused on what and how we observe. One of our assignments is to observe in the same public setting for an hour on a few different occasions and to take notes. I was kind of thinking of trying to get this done while at the gym since there is a lot to observe in that setting, but I haven't quite worked out how I would take notes while simultaneously exercising. In the course of my reading, I came across a book called Kidwatching which I ordered from Amazon.

I am interested to see what it has to say and I look forward to fitting it into my busy schedule. I feel like I have many many teacher books piled up that I have purchased yet haven't read and I definitely need to put some time aside to get through them all. (Or maybe they will get read this summer....) I find it really hard to incorporate 1 on 1 assessment time in the short days that I have with each group, so I think that improving my ability to gather data on their literacy skills more "on the fly" will be really helpful.

I have one small assignment left, but I am thinking of just putting my feet up and enjoying the rest of the evening without any more work. I ran 8 miles this morning with my running group and we upped our speed a bit, so I ready to relax!

**Thanks for the kind comments about the struggles I have been having at school recently. I really appreciate hearing about other teachers who have gone through similar struggles and teachers that recognize the difficulties of classroom management. I know that I am not alone and that not only do I have the support of my colleagues at school, but also many wonderful blog friends that have offered nice words of encouragement. You guys are the best!