These are the final days of summer vacation. Hold on while I
freak out/throw a tantrum for a moment….
While I officially
start back to work this week, I have not been relaxing much lately. In fact,
it’s been far from relaxing. With
Brian’s help, I spent two weeks at Pembroke Hill (Primary campus) directing 21
5th-10th graders in a staged version of The Hobbit for The Coterie. Then, another week was spent assisting a class
for The Coterie.
The two-week performance camp started with auditions on the
first day and ended with two performances the next Friday and Saturday. It was
a whirlwind of an experience. Overall,
the performance camp was a blast, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Working alongside Brian reminded me of what we used to do in college, as we
spent most of our time together in the theater working on productions. We’ve
had people mention to us that they could never work with their spouse, but for
us it felt very natural and fun. I feel incredibly lucky to say that I love
working alongside my spouse, and I think he would agree.
From 8am-3:30pm everyday, Brian and I worked with these
crazy kiddos. While I work with this age group throughout the school year, this
bunch was incredibly different. We worked through movement, vocal, and ensemble
building exercises without a hitch. When you have an entire group of students
hungry for theatre, ready for whatever you throw at them, everything changes.
These kids took major risks, followed directions well (woah, this was somewhat
new for me…), and had fun doing all of it.
I’m very excited to apply what I’ve learned from this experience back to
my classroom.
And now that the week is upon me that I actually have to
head back to real work, I find myself filled with anxiety. I’ve looked at my rosters, started planning a
few units for the year, and thought about my classroom a bit. I anticipate some
challenging days ahead of me; this school year is not going to be easy. Thank
goodness for prayer and a good husband to lean on.
Tomorrow I begin waking up early (got to get that internal
clock ready for school too!) and filling my day with activities and planning
for school. I’d like to say I’m excited, but I won’t lie: I dread this week. No
more negative, self! Let’s focus on the positive. Here are some goals I have
for this week to kick myself into a positive mindset for the school year:
1.
Focused time for prayer and reflection to
mentally prepare my heart and mind for the upcoming weeks and year.
2.
Gym time everyday. This is a major stress
reliever for me, and makes me feel good in general.
3.
Plan. Plan. Plan. Did I mention I need to plan? I will use my new planner from
Erin Condren to get organized and ready for my classes.
4.
Read a new book (or two!).
5.
Spend some final, much needed, quality time with
my husband before the real craziness ensues.
I see this week as a time to mentally prepare myself for the
school year. Prayer would be much appreciated.
To all my teacher readers, I feel your bittersweet emotions as we have
now entered the month of August. We can
do this!
