Home sick - Moderately productive

Sometime during the past week I caught a cold. It manifested itself this weekend in the form of a fairly vicious headache and a very painful sore throat. This is a one sided sore throat and hurt so much that at 3:30 AM Sunday morning I was online researching symptoms of strep throat. I decided that I don't have it based on 2 things. I don't have a high fever. I do have sinus drainage. So I'm probably dealing with a regular viral cold and just feel awful. I called in sick for today and will probably be home in bed tomorrow too. I feel that bad. That's rare for me this year. Mostly my health has been good thanks to vitamins and frequent hand washing. Since I work at a public school those two measures seem to be vital to maintain good health. One of the desires of every public school teacher is that parents would not use the school as a baby sitting service when their children are sick. If you child is sick they need to be home in bed, not at school feeling crummy and making their teachers' lives miserable. That doesn't cover the fact that children who go to school sick spread their germs around and then everyone gets sick.

So, here I am at home, reading email, trying to get rest, and feeling I need to use the time productively. To accomplish the productivity I went searching for my student teaching packet, a task which got a lot of trash papers thrown away, and proceeded to take care of two necessary pieces of business. I emailed the student teaching department and confirmed my intent to student teach. I then went online and registered for that course for this fall. Yes folks, it's official! I will student teach in fall of 2007.

That's one of the things that has been worrying me of late. I am quite the perfectionist, so of course I want to do well. I also want to do my student teaching in a place that will put me in a good position to get a job when I'm done. I think I have that managed. I'm on my districts list as a student teacher and have written the student teaching coordinator (at her request) with my preferences for campus choices. Hopefully I'll get one of them.

This also puts pressure on me to update my resume, get letters of recommendation from teachers I've worked with, and make sure my financial ducks are in order for the fall. Thankfully I've done my taxes so I can reapply for student loans. They should meet the needs I have for that semester. I'm going to have to quit my job at the middle school. That makes me nervous. You do better looking for a job if you have one already. But you can't student teach and hold down a 40 hour a week job.

At some point I should probably go over my wardrobe and weed out the stuff I no longer wear, get some new shoes for work, and make sure I have enough professional outfits that I can wear to teach in. Fortunately, my beloved sister bought me a nice professional looking suit for Christmas. I already have enough short sleeved sweaters to wear with it and think I only need some nice discrete jewelry to add to the quality of the look.

With that being said, I'm now pretty much exhausted and am planning on heading back to bed for some more rest. Please keep me in your prayers for returning health and also for the upcoming semesters.

Peace!