Midnight Madness

Once again, I am up far later than a PWN should be. Oops! Life continues to surge at a break neck pace, yet I am surviving. My daughter had a horrid cold at the beginning of last week, and I promptly caught it. I came home early from school last Wednesday and immediately got worse. Somehow, I managed to limp through Thursday and Friday, not only getting to school, but also teaching decently. It was stunning to realize that I could feel as bad as I did, but still get to work and perform adequately. I must admit that I felt a bit of pride in being able to do that. Of course, I also questioned my sanity, particularly on Friday when my morning dose of cold medication did not play nicely with my stimulant. The chest pains and racing heart had me a little worried, but I got through it.

This week has been better from a health perspective, but today was difficult personally and professionally. We have been discussing a change to our cell phone policy and our iPod/mp3 player policy for the past two years. March 24 was finally the day of our "listening session" to hear faculty feedback. Needless to say, no one tends to be more biting in their criticism than disgruntled teachers. I facilitated two sessions and felt pummled by the negative feelings of many of my colleagues. I can understand resistence to the ideas proposed, but many people went well beyond that and vented about "technology" in general. It hurt because our committee has put so much time and energy into our work, but also because I personally believe that integrating more technology into the schoolwide curriculum is vital to helping our students prepare for the future that awaits them. To have a number of colleagues disparage that idea saddened me. It also made me question whether my school is the right place for my daughter, or for me.