49 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT BUT WHO'S COUNTING?

We go back to school today. For me the day when vacation ends is traditionally one where I have a somewhat restless night with only a little sleep because I try to make sure that everything is ready for my return to work.

Even after many, many years in this business, sometimes I still get that teacher nightmare where I step in front of a class and have no idea what to do. This usually happens the night before the end of a vacation or before an observation. I have these trepidations and I work in a school with a supportive administration. My heart goes out to those of you coming back to school who work for incompetent and/or abusive principals or assistant principals.

In the interest of attempting to be optimistic, I counted the school days left on this year's calendar.

There are 8 school days remaining in April.
There are 22 school days in April.
There are 19 school days in June.
By my simple math that means there are 49 school days left in the 2016-17 school year.

We'll get through until summer vacation.

For equal time, it is time now to look at the glass as 1/4 empty. The big stretch begins today as we go from April 19th straight through to Memorial Day Weekend (May 27th-29th) without any days off. By my calculations that is 28 school days in a row or 5 and 3/5 weeks. This is one of those times of the year when students normally feel quite restless no matter what the teacher does.

Oh and there is a UFT Delegate Assembly today. After driving for 16 hours with two kids the last two days on the way home from visiting Camille's brother and sister and their children in Georgia and not sleeping much, I might not have the stamina to sit through a DA this afternoon. I will see how I feel later.