October days

Traditionally, October and March tend to be the most difficult months of the year for me. These are the times of year when work stress wreaks its havoc on me and I do all I can to keep my head above water.

Here's a look at what October 2015 is/has been like:

• SGO (student growth objective) pre-assessments are due.  This is an assessment I create and deliver to two of my six classes, grade, create a spreadsheet of the results, then upload the assessment, rubric and spreadsheet for each class to an online portfolio.
• A professional development plan needs to be written, signed by an administrator, and uploaded to the same online portfolio.
• Two separate nights of parent-teacher conferences with two hour delays the following day that disrupt the schedule.
• Other random events that disrupt the schedule, such as PSAT testing and school assemblies.
• Oktoberfest put on by the neighboring high school's German program that I take my students to.
• College letters of recommendation.  Every year I get more requests.  This year I'm up to 7.
• No days off the whole month.
• New this year: Stevie directed one show and is acting in another.  She has spent the better part of this month in rehearsal.
• Also new this year: I'm mentoring a student teacher from a local college.  She observes me a few times a week and has to complete 2 lessons which I have to give feedback on, then write up a lengthy evaluation of her for her professor.
• On top of all of this, October is my highest month of mileage when I'm training for the Philadelphia Marathon in November.

We're coming to the end of the month, and I can see the taper from here, but there are still some hard training days left to go.