Today, I found myself in a whirlwind of activity, getting ready for the NCTM Conference in Salt Lake City, UT (math conference for my non-teacher folk). This included decorating my room a bit, cleaning out my desk, and getting those grants for Penny Harvest ready with my kids, along with trying to maintain some sort of peace within my class. Yesterday, I spent all afternoon copying some exercises for them to do while the substitute is present, mainly because whenever I’m not in the school, something disastrous usually happens. It’s been well documented, and every administrator and even my kids are on alert this week from what I understand. This time, I hope that some of the things I’ve left thwart the bad luck, or at least curb it.

I also spent all afternoon making inspirational mini-posters for the classroom, like:

and printing them out, and meeting probably the most helpful Kinko’s rep I’ve ever met. After he couldn’t fully laminate my door dec, he gave it to me for free. Well done.

Anyways, I was thinking about live-blogging the NCTM (maybe then I’ll get invited into the virtual math club, not), but then I decided against it. No one in their right mind would live-blog something unless they were getting paid for it. Personally, I have no such aspirations. I won’t be another statistic for blog stress. But I’ll definitely have my laptop with me, and maybe I’ll post some thoughts so everyone has a little access into what’s going on there.

This afternoon, I also found myself in this type of mood:

Tug only slightly at my heart string
Collapse your hair across my shoulders
Let me unburden you
Heal bruises too clothed for me to reach
Coat you in my love
To be everything and nothing to you all at once
To love you and not hurt you
To close my eyelids and see nothing
But us
Confusion for the future
Trepidation in the present
Recanting from our past
You are the strongest lesson planned for me
Hoping to learn the rubric to grade me by memory …

jose, who has like 4 or so hours to get ready for this conference …