The Main Resolution

Resolution Number 1: Find a way to stop letting my job take over my life. Most of the problem is me: I've always had this tendency with any job I've ever had. I'm either on the job, or the job is with me, wherever I am. Go away! Shoo!

Step a. Find a way, somehow, to leave thoughts of work at work.

Step b. Bring more fun into my life after work hours. Forget the piles of papers and the endless planning. What does it matter, really? The students don't care if they get papers back, nor whether the class is well-planned. The administrators who observe the class will find something wrong no matter how much time I put into planning, so what the hey. Instead, see friends more on weekends, go to Tybee and walk the beach, plan trips, read more pleasure books, write in my blog, finish the children's book I'm writing for grandson.

Step c: Stop neglecting vanity, such as nail fill-ins or the occasional shirt or new shoes.

Step d. Relax about job performance. It can't be any worse than any other teachers' and may even be better. I know one teacher at my school who sleeps during class, and she's still there!

Step e: Stop spending personal money for supplies. Sonny's $100 gift to all teachers last fall, sweet touch that it was, is long, long gone, but that doesn't mean I should be funding my classroom supplies. I can use the extra money for a trip next summer.

Step f: Consider trying to transfer to one of the Title I schools, such as Savannah High. At least with Title I money, the hallways and supply budgets are lined with gold, so to speak, even if the students are rough.

Step g: A new gym opened just down the street from our community! L. already has been going to his downtown gym three times a week for the past five years. The city pays for it. Three months ago, P. started going to weight training at a gym in Garden City. I couldn't go to either gym because of their inconvenient locations. But this new gym is within walking distance from my house!! I plan to join tomorrow, and will use it to work off the on-the-job tension. I love walking and pilates, but a treadmill and bicycle will be a boost to the endomorphins.