Rainy Sunday

Yesterday morning I spent a lot of time organizing my apartment.  I put away clothes, did a load of laundry, did my dishes, and baked a DELICIOUS batch of Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal.  It felt good to sleep in and do things on my own time, but I still had my TPA work lingering in the back of my mind.

I got to spend last night babysitting my 3 1/2 year old nephew and 18 month old niece.  I love getting the chance to go over and play with them!  It always reminds me how excited I am to have kids of my own and that I can wait a looong while to do so. :)  

This morning I have been busy writing a paper for my seminar.  My task this week was to observe other teachers, reflect, and apply things from them to my own teaching.  While I see this as a valuable task, I also feel like there are 23,984 other things that I'd like to be doing today.  I have an Intstructor magazine that I have yet to read and I have two reading groups to plan.  I need to read through my students' writing journals to plan my writing lessons for this week.  And yet, what is on my mind?  Getting my TPA project done and making sure I have everything done for seminar this week.   I wish that I could simply focus on my students and what their needs are for the upcoming week instead of writing pages upon pages for my supervisor to read.  I feel like I'm just spitting out the same words that I have since the beginning of my time in this program.  I check the syllabus weekly to make sure that I'm staying on top of things and then I do them to get them done.  Maybe it's my negative mindset on my final class as an undergrad that's holding me back, but honestly, which is more important?  Planning and reflecting on things that I'm teaching my real students, or getting things checked off a seminar to-do list? 

I'm taking a break to have lunch with a friend this afternoon- perhaps that will refresh my mind and keep me motivated.  When I come back, I'm going to dive head-first into TPA work.  My beloved Packers play on Sunday Night Football and my hope is to have most of my work done by then.  Crossing my fingers!

-Brittany