I read Holes at school during reading class a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I watched the video last Friday night and it was great. I am going to use this book and film with students as I feel there are a lot of good things to be learnt from it. I found another book There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom by Sachar. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the counsellor at our school. I don’t know how often I have heard or said the comment that the counsellor is not doing enough to help. I read that book and it made me appreciate the kind of long term effort it can take with people for counsellors. It is an important role and to expect instant results would be silly. It is a great book, was an enjoyable and mostly very light story. I think there is something in that story for everyone. I realised in reflection on my own behaviour, how it is easy to become disliked when you are angry and sad. You push others away and it can happen very quickly that you end up with few people who want to be around you. It is not some kind of huge personality disorder, that needs to be untangled. It was a great read.
Avoiding Report Writing
Today I want to write my reports for my students. Every time I get to this time of the year I get the urge to clean my house, start a new business, write a novel, visit an elderly relative I have been neglecting and to read. I read the most I ever read around report writing time.
Yesterday I felt I was being choked to death slowly and painfully by my ‘to do’ list that I hadn’t had time to write down. Many of the things on that to do list were urgent and I’m afraid Mr Covey I was beyond figuring out whether they were important or not. I hadn’t slept the night before worrying that if I were to forget one of the things on my list it would create a large catastrophe in my life.
No matter how organised I get, procrastination and panic are my constants.
Rethinking Me
I have gone over half way on nanowrimo. I feel such a sense of accomplishment. I love this. I have had a few struggly moments, but they have been fleeting, hence moments was the word I used not hours or days.
I have been sick with my lumpy underarm, sore throat tired virus.
While I have been lying around feeling sick and sorry for myself I have been thinking about all my life decisions and what I wanted to be when I grew up and what I have turned out to be. I need to think more on it. I don’t feel as inclined to make rash decisions as I once was. I am not in the position to up and leave my job as I used to. I am just thinking about changing the energy I give to my job. It was only meant to be a short-term thing to tide me over and now I have found myself putting all my energy into it. It is not that it is a bad thing to put all your passion and energy into. It’s just not meant to be my thing I think. It has given me a very good couple of years but I think it really is time to make some changes to the way I do life and work is one of those things. It has consumed me the last 5 years. It has mostly been a mutual affair, but now I am ready to change things.