For the next couple weeks I will be posting the Gratitude Journal prompts that are being given to my students and my response post.

First thing that comes to mind is not waking up at 5:30 for two weeks, AKA SLEEP! I am not a morning person and how I’ve gotten away with education’s early morning demands is that I get up early enough that it’s still dark outside and my night-owl mindset is all about being up when it’s dark outside. I learned this about myself my first year living on campus at Loyola Marymount University, that I liked writing into the night and being out and about when all of the smart kids were tucked away in their rooms. This didn’t work well with 7 and 8 am classes, but I quickly learned to not sign up for those abominations. So, whenever possible, especially when we have these longer breaks, my natural stay up all night working/writing persona comes out and I turn off the damn alarm clock. Yay, winter break!

I also have more than a few LEGO kits and robot kits and IKEA purchases the need attention. Who knows what will get my attention. I’m not going to worry about it. Stuff will get done. But this break also marks the halfway point in my last year teaching, well, at least in this current public face-to-face middle school teaching mode. I’m more than a little anxious to get my online stuff going and also make useful archives of my teaching experiences so that when they show me the door and lock me out of my classes, I have editable evidence of the work I’ve done. So, yeah, I’m halfway done here and that makes me smile, a lot. 

What are you looking forward to with the winter holiday?