Back to school, back to routine

Well...sort of back to routine. I figured out that between August 9th and September 9th, I'll have spent 13 nights sleeping away from my own bed. (And there's a ginormous tree branch poked into the roof like a toothpick into a cupcake above my bed. I'm thankful that I was not in that bed when the tree branch met the roof.)

So. Year 2 of Fantasy as a Genre. Still full of students that could kindly be called "behavior problems." They keep it fun, and they seem to listen better than last year's class did. Lord-of-the-Rings-a-pa-looza is in ten days; it promises to be thrilling.

Ninth grade class retreat is this week. I actually got my sub plans in early -- that will never happen again! I'm looking forward to the two days up at camp, especially because I think my homeroom is actually going to have a decent skit this year.

As for the Brit Lit classes, two have an unusual number of girls in the section. I've never had a section where the girls outnumbered the boys, but it's been interesting. I've maintained for the past couple of years that by the time they're juniors, the girls at school get reticent in classes with the boys, particularly when the boys are obstreperous. (There are quite a few obstreperous boys in this junior class, but none of them are in my sections yet.) As a result, it's often more difficult to get the girls to speak out and take leadership roles in the course. It could just be the blend of personalities in my sections this term; so far, however, the girls are being slightly dominant in class discussion. My holds-degrees-from-two-women's-colleges self is loving it. :)

There's a lot that's positive right now, although I feel like my life for the past eight months was taken over with infertility issues. Finally, finally, finally, we're moving forward with treatment, and there may be a light at the end of this tunnel. Even if there's not a light, there's at least forward motion, and that's better than standing still.