Procrastination

So, we have this online course that we teachers are required to do. I will say right up front that we had 60 days from the time we were registered online so we really had sufficient time to work on in it. I decided that I needed to get at it right away so I wouldn't get down to the wire and then be in panic mode. For the first few days at school, I carried the accompanying binder around and began reading in spare moments. But, as most of you probably guessed by my title, that lasted for all of 2 or 3 days and then I didn't touch it for awhile. After the 60 days are up, you no longer have access to it online. By the beginning of this week, we were down to the last 2 weeks. The actual online part is not bad - it is only 6 lessons each of which are maybe 10-15 minutes to listen to and watch but what I didn't realize is just how much reading was involved. There are pages, chapters, and whole units that you are supposed to read out of the book that the course is based off of. Then there is the accompanying binder (as seen below) that is FULL of more pages to read, reflection questions at the end of each lesson, and pages to start our own portfolios that we are supposed to do throughout the rest of the school year. Needless to say, there is a TON of reading to go along with it. Now most of my other colleagues are going to skim read and answer the questions at best but I have this weird personality trait where I just can't make myself skim over stuff. I don't know what it is that makes me like that. For instance, when I was a kid, if the teacher said we only had to do the even numbered problems/sentences on a page or we didn't have to do certain sections, I still had to do the whole thing - I just couldn't stand to leave any blank. (I won't even tell about stacking all the cups and bowls in certain color patterns when it was my turn to take care of dishes as a kid.) It really is a curse! So I started reading... and reading... and reading some more. I would go so far as to find myself reading BACK over a section because I realized I had "tuned out" at some point and didn't have a clue what I had just read. (I think I really need to do an exercise just to practice making myself not be so obssessive about things like that but anyway...) I have been counting and dividing up the pages and setting little "goals" for myself to try to break up the reading. Wednesday afternoon, I put Kaelyn down for a late nap and then I devotedly started reading again. I would read, doze off, wake myself up (re-read what I missed when I started dozing) and I kept up that pattern until I just couldn't stay awake any more. When Kevin got home around 6:00, Kaelyn and I were both fast asleep - she was in her room and I was on the couch with my reading material. I had not purposely pulled my visor down, it just slid down over my face after I fell asleep. Kevin was amused when he walked in. He said it looked perfectly posed so he took pictures unbeknownst to me. I didn't see them till later when Kaelyn was asking to see pictures of something else and there they were - lovely as could be.
Epilogue - I am now almost finished with everything and yes, I read every single page and clicked on every single little thing there was to click on on the online part. Although the following pictures might make you want to feel pity for me (I doubt it) for having to work myself so hard that I just can't stay awake, you really should just take it as a life lesson - "If you procrastinate, you may just have to read till your eyeballs fall out of their sockets!" :)


Don't you like MY classroom management ACTION
plan? :)