What the hell does Don do all day?

Well, this probably should have been one of my first posts but better late than never.  While Christine’s daily activities have been well documented, what the hell do I do all day?  For starters I teach Tuesday through Friday and sit in the State BOE office all day on Mondays.  The only work that I have on office days is to complete a quick summary of the classes I had the week before.  This takes about twenty minutes and then I have the res t of the day to myself.  They don’t ask me to do a damn thing.  I usually study Japanese and make lesson plans for the week coming up.  The rest of the week I usually hop on the 8:00 bus and go to one of my schools.  The trip takes anywhere from a half hour to three hours depending on where I am going.  If I am going to a school in my town I just ride my bike (even in the snow). 

There are four schools that I go to about once per month, another school that I go to once every two months and then the other 18 schools I only go to three times each the whole year.  For the most part when I get to the school it is a big day for them.  I am like a special guest and they treat me like a celebrity.  They are so thoughtful and kind it can be really overwhelming.  I get all kinds of little gifts from the students and the teachers love to ask me a bunch of questions.  It’s a lot of fun but I always feel like I have to have super high energy for them because they only get to see me a few times so I need to be my absolute best.  It can be tough to get excited sometimes because I usually don’t know where I am going or what I am doing until I get there and even then I don’t really know because some teachers don’t speak any English.  I find that just acting happy and confident goes a long way though. 

I probably have the most fun going to elementary schools.  It doesn’t matter what I say or do, the kids love everything.  They freak out and laugh and scream if I just say hello to them.  They love to play games and try to say words in English.  They are adorable.  I always have fun at elementary schools.

I'll post more later about the middle and high schools.