6:53pm and the Next Day

It's 6:53pm, and I'm going to save posting this for tomorrow, but I wanted to make a note for myself that I've spent the last 20 minutes responding to an e-mail from another Drama teacher at my school who wanted to know more about assessing students using process journals or processfolios.  These are sort of like a portfolio, but instead of containing only a student's best work, they contain examples of the student's works as they progress along with metacognitive/reflective writing about both the process and the product. As I think about assessing students in a Drama class, a processfolio makes a lot more sense than a single end grade, because I'm trying to teach the students both what high-quality theater-arts work looks like, as well as the processes that actors, directors, and designers use to get there.

Ok, I'm really, seriously taking my first day off today. No working on exams. No working on planning lessons. No thinking about my job... Oh wait. It's too late for that. I am (almost) always thinking about my job. For example, yesterday I was scrolling through my invitations and suggested events on MeetUp and I came across this interesting-sounding convention - MuseCon. (You can read all about it here.)  As I was looking at the offerings, I started to get really excited; there are classes about things I've always wanted to learn, like how to play the Celtic harp. But then I started thinking about whether those were the *best* classes for me to take, and my internal dialogue turned in to this:

MeA:  Oooooh! Celtic harp! I would love that! I could take the one in the basement and actually learn to play it!

MeB:  Damnit. That's at the same time as Renaissance Dance. Which one should I do?

MeA:  Harp! I've wanted to learn since college!

MeB:  Yeah, but I could probably use what I learn in the dance class for teaching Shakespeare, or in Drama I, or something.

MeA:  But... harp!

MeB:  Be a good teacher! Be a better teacher! Learn something you can teach your kids!

MeA:  BUT THIS IS A CONVENTION I WANT TO GO TO FOR ME!

MeB:  HAHAHAHA! TOO BAD! YOU'RE A TEACHER AND YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP THINKING ABOUT TEACHING ALL SUMMER! EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL SOMEHOW RELATE TO TEACHING! EVEN THINGS YOU WANT TO DO JUST FOR YOU WILL NEVER BE JUST FOR YOU!!!!!

MeA: /le sigh

I should note that, if I do actually go to MuseCon, having now had this argument with myself, I'm going to do the harp class if there's still room in it, because it's something I've wanted to learn for a decade now. I even bought myself a small harp to try to teach myself, but I don't play it often enough (as in never) for that to be effective.

On a related -I always think about teaching- note, I went to the gym this morning. As I was resting between sets on the leg press, I had this thought:  I wonder if having stronger legs will give me more stamina for teaching on the block next year.

In short, there is no escaping my job. Even when I'm not working, I'm thinking about working.