Work is in full swing

Work is in fuuuuullll swing.

Right now, I tend to leave home around 7:10 AM and get home around 5:30 PM. Parent night last Thursday kept me out until after 9:00 PM but I managed to get home at 4:45 PM the Friday after as a consolation. Actually, parent night wasn't all that bad. I went to my tutoring job at 4, worked for a little over an hour, and then the family fed me a pizza dinner before I had to rush back to school and finish getting ready.

Have I mentioned that I really like tutoring?
I worked with two families over the summer, but I didn't want to do more than one during the work year since I'm being evaluated. Luckily, one job ran it's natural course and I recommended that the family suspend my services unless something drastic happened .* The family that I'm left with is great. I taught the older daughter 3 years ago in math (go figure), the youngest son is in my learning seminar this year, and the son I'm currently working with is a kid I really feel I can help. I don't always get that feeling, sadly. In special ed, I sometimes feel like I'm practicing teaching triage. I take a group of kids that are not succeeding and I bend over backwards with paperwork to make sure there's enough success to move them on to the next grade. No miracles, just down and dirty work in the trenches. With tutoring, it's nice to focus one on one with a kid and feel like I'm making an impact.

Anyway, work is busy, busy. It's my turn to take care of the boy once I get home and then after he goes to bed there's a chance for some free time. I try to make sure I'm in bed by 10:00 PM at the latest. Honestly, I normally don't go to bed once I'm up there, but I'm trying. It sometimes feels like I have to wring out whatever rest and free time I can have and going to bed too soon will be a missed opportunity.

It's not a bad life, I'm just busy.

I've been feeling like I understand my parents and things they did when I was a child much more lately. I used to think my dad enjoyed working. That's right. Enjoyed. As a kid, it seemed like he was almost a workaholic. On Friday, I got home from work early and then immediately went to work taking care of Shane and cleaning the house for an hour and a half. And you know what? I would not have been satisfied with my day if I hadn't done that. There was stuff to do, and someone had to do it. I think I missed the mark thinking my dad enjoyed the work. I think he just wanted to make sure his family was well taken care of and it was his responsibility to do it. That's how I feel at least.

As always, there's a ton more to write, but I'm not going to make an epic post here. I try not to write directly about the drama and excitement of school life (of which there are some great stories) because this is a public forum a kid I teach could stumble across (a 0.0005% chance but who's calculating?).  There're plenty of Shane stories as well!  In the meantime, adios.

*(Long story short, the boy was a very hard worker and he was already going into an elective at school to help with math. I strongly encouraged the family that he should stay after school once a week as a matter of habit to develop a relationship of his math teacher as well so he wouldn't be afraid to ask for help this year. All of it was advice I honestly meant, and then I said that I didn't see her son needing two class of math a day, after school help, and a tutor. It didn't make pocketbook sense.)