Dreaming it....

Vacation? What vacation? I've said it before and I'll say it again, teachers (for the most part - the really good (aka: nutty) ones, anyway) do not take summer vacation. Whether you are taking summer course work, teaching summer school or constantly improving your old curriculum in your mind, if not on paper (even when you really don't want to, you just can't turn your brain off.....) like my colleagues have been doing this summer, or like me, you are dreaming it at night because working on it during the day isn't enough, summer vacation for teachers just really isn't summer vacation like everyone seems to think it is. I'm not complaining in any sense of the word - it sure has been nice to be able to do some of this thinking, pondering, reading and preparing on the beach when the sunshine just demands that of you - but once a teacher always a teacher....there's just a certain place that resides in your mind and heart that you can never fully shutdown.

That being said, the anxiety dreams about teaching grade two are in full swing. Like every night... I think they fairly well reflect what the reality will be (besides a few weird twists that can only take place in the dream world) - sometimes I'm dreaming myself if complete control of the situation and other times I'm in a panic of mad chaos. The bulk of the dreams represent me as both a student and a teacher (like I'm taking a university course about teaching and suddenly I realize that I am actaully supposed to be teaching it and find myself totally unprepared) or me teaching the little kids again who wander off and get lost among the big kids and I'm searching for my little guys. It's going to be a tough year full of new challenges, but as always I'm preparing in advance as much as possible, and I'm sure we'll all survive (hopefully even with a smile!) in the end.

However, the dreaded August allergy eyes are back in full force this year, which is slowing down a bit of my work. As I'm not yet required to be at school, my eye are truly horrid enough that I would rather hide out in the safe haven of the treehouse apartment rather than be stared down on the streets of Riga for looking anything less than perfect, so I'm doing as much as I can from home. This leads to more time-wasting than I'm sure I might be doing at school (ie: suddenly that extra nap seems incredibly necessary or I must play just one more game of pathwords on the computer, or I blog....), but I am doing my best. Come next week, I may not have a choice anymore.... And I really hope that by some miracle, the allergy eyes will pass early this year. I always feel bad for the kids on the first day of school who have to meet Miss Diana, with the crazy red eyes.....