18 November

So, am I the only person who wonders how those two people in the Cyalis commercial managed to drag two bathtubs to the edge of of what appears to be a wine grove? No wonder the poor man needs some prescription help. He’s expending far too much energy in the wrong places.

No school for one week. Well, no students for one week. Sometime during this time “off,” I will finsih grading papers, reread Things Fall Apart, finish reading Speak, plan a Socratic Seminar combining Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart, develop a unit for Speak, cruise the telephone book for possible guest speakers to discuss sexual harrassment, date rape, suicide, and other equally depressing teen issues, write (finally) a detailed syllabus for my AP students AND my Creative Writing class, write a monthly syllabus for my other English III classes, and type up handouts for the above.

And this is being “on vacation”?

Also on the agenda:

1. Open the Pandora’s binder that is National Board Certification and attempt to write at least one entry for my portfolio.

2. Finish editing my two query letters for my women’s fiction WIP.

3. Submit query letters for my women’s fiction to agents and publishers on the list that I will make. Guess that should be number 2.5.

4. Polish query letter for YA.

5. See #3, substitute YA for women’s fiction.

6. Email students and, I pray, have some who will be available to meet with me as an advisory board of sorts for my YA novels. I want to throw ideas at them since they’re in the teen trenches–God bless ‘em. Plus, they are talented , ambitious writers themselves and brutually honest.

One of my students, Sam, is working on my soon-to-be-born website. I am amazed by his techno-speak and talent, not to mention his generosity sacrificing personal time to create a website for a teacher whose assignments suck up much of his life.

Is it June yet?