Am I Home or on Vacation?

Am I on vaction? Yes.

Am I home? Yes.

I had lunch today with teacher friends out on the Capitola Wharf. Looking from the water toward the village and beach - it is so darn cute. Hundreds of Junior Lifeguards kids were running about in their red or blue bathing suits. Absolutely precious.

Speaking of children.

The days of summer vacation are dwindling. Twelve days till the job officially begins again. I don't dread it, but I am not wishing for time to fly, either.

Mentally and physically I am on the job already. I have been in my classroom two days so far, applying elbow grease to the desks. Translation: I have been scrubbing (hard!) the seats of the 36 desks in my room. I can do about a dozen at a time before the sweat inside the rubble gloves grosses me out, my back aches, and I quit.

I have a challenge ahead of me. After six years of teaching 6th graders, I will face 8th graders instead. The change is my choice. The good news: I will have students I know. The bad news: I will have students I know.

During the last few days I've read S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. It is the standard 8th grade novel at our school. But I'm thinking TWO novels are better than one. I'm half way through Huckleberry Finn. Wouldn't that just be a perfect fit for the part of the year when the kids learn about the US Civil War? Oh yeah. Maybe I had better brush up on that subject, too.