Confessions 

About once a month, I have one of those days where I am so mentally and physically exhausted from the school day that I come home and do one of 3 things: 

1. flop on the couch and watch bad TV
2.cry
3.sleep 

Today was one of those days. In fact, today was a day for all 3. I flopped on the couch, cried, fell asleep, woke up and watched bad TV - in this case an extraordinarily long meeting of my district's school committee. Yes, I actually watch those. 

My family knows what to do in these cases by now. One of my them will make me tea, one usually brings me a blanket, one will massage my shoulders or feet. They are concerned but not overly - they know I'll be fine and am just letting off tension. 

It all started this morning, when everything was already stressful and confusing because of a snow day yesterday. The arrival of a new ELL student who walked with her mom in the freezing weather to school  coincided with my middle daughter calling to tell me that my youngest did not want to get up for school. I spent over an hour with the new student because the guidance counselor was in a meeting, so I couldn't go to my inclusion social studies class; then I had to make arrangements for another class so I could rush home to check on my daughter (thank you Peter R., you are the best!). This was followed by 2 meetings to talk about different challenging things happening at school. In the scheme of things, it wasn't THAT bad. Could be worse, I guess. But sometimes, when I have one of these days,  I wonder how I will be able to go in and teach the next day.

It helps to make myself think about the good things about school. I think about the new student, and how lost she was today and how she will need help and guidance tomorrow. I think about the new units I'm rolling out, and how  I'm excited about them even though it's a lot of work. And I think of my amazing, awesome colleagues, who keep coming in day after day, who joke and laugh with me in the hallways, who care deeply about their students, who will share nachos on a Friday and shake off the week with me. Thank you, fellow ARMS teachers. You guys rock. And family - you rock, too.