Summer Vacation
Summer school ends tomorrow, and not a minute too soon. It's been something every day - a house fire half a block away, vandalism, theft...today two students in a music class got into an argument over which instruments to use and the girl clocked the boy on the head with one of them. Yes, these are middle school students.
I do have some big news, though: I am leaving the school I've been teaching in for the last few years and finally making the move up to high school. It's a charter high school for at-risk students and English learners, with a focus on project-based learning and college preparation. They just finished their sixth year and they have about an 85-90% college acceptance rate for graduates. They are finally ready to develop a Journalism program and establish a newspaper and yearbook, and that's where I come in. I'll also have one section of Humanities (English/history). I'm really excited about it. I start orientation/staff development on August 10.
Which means that my actual vacation time between summer school and regular school has been cut pretty short. The only real vacation we're taking is this coming week, going to visit my parents in Monterey. So I'll be on hiatus until next weekend. And the week after that is an exciting one for us too: my daughter starts kindergarten on August 1 (year-round school).
With all of this transition and upheaval, the one thing that's fallen by the wayside is my workout schedule. I actually haven't worked out in a week, and I probably won't for another week. But I remember that Shane taught me it's OK to take breaks as long as you don't stay out too long. You're not going to lose all of the muscle you've built in just a couple of weeks out of the gym - as long as you don't go nuts with food.
That's the good part; I'm 100% for my July goals. No chocolate, no coleslaw, no onion rings for 19 days straight. And it makes me feel good to at least be doing well with those goals, so I won't fall off the wagon or feel like I've gotten completely off track for not working out. I would like to reiterate: I HAVE NOT EATEN CHOCOLATE IN 19 DAYS. That's worth repeating.