When Summer Ends

Media vita in morte sumus.  The death of summer, the death of the hope that I will get my longed-for organization accomplished, the death of my very last nerve as I spent the afternoon compiling a massive table of Latin lessons keyed to appropriate quotes and tried to pack it all back into my master template before some random electron cloud might come along and scramble the whole thing.  (It didn't, but I have that kind of relationship with MSWord, so you never know).  Note to my students: I've cut some of the repetitive quotes and you will have to work for your bonus points from now on - they'll be retroactive.  And much less of the silly ones.  I'm keeping "Avis est, aeronavis est, Supervir est," but ditching "Sanctos Subjunctivos, Virvespertilio!" and "Me transmitte sursum Caledonii."  (Most 6th graders don't know who Scotty is even in English.)  When it's all done I will have a much more streamlined master lesson plan, but there is much more of the dread formatting that must happen.  I must steel myself with folk music and knitting.

I have a recurring fantasy this time of year that someone will come along and make all my phone calls, organize my schedule, do my grocery shopping, and plan my carpool for me.  I'm avoiding all of that myself, and re-reading the first three Harry Potter books -- now that's going back to school in style!  Maybe by September 12 I'll be good to go, doing my level best to channel Professor McGonagall.