Pre-Holiday Update, 2nd Year Teaching

My post observation meeting with our Principal went well. I was a bit more critical of my launch than she was. She was supportive of the content and the way the lesson was launched. I did express my thoughts of possibly having too many teaching points and too long of a launch.

We talked about the behavior challenges involved with that particular class, and I was given the advice to be cautious about how we vocally re-direct students. She didn't say that I was inappropriate, but reminded me of the needs to be culturally sensitive, which is always good advice, especially when working in a building where student nationality/ethnicity can be traced back to more than 15 different countries.

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I have complained about being sick quite often during this past year and a half. I've often been told by other educational professionals to expect a certain amount of sickness the first two years of teaching as our bodies get use to the various germs we encounter in our profession. I think because of this, I have to a certain extent accepted how sick I have been as a part of the job. It was getting to be too much though this year as I had felt as though I was sick most of the beginning of this year. Enough was enough and I went to see my otolaryngologist (earn, nose, throat Dr.). I have had a couple of sinus surgeries in the past and desperately wanted to avoid another one. A CT scan revealed that even though my passageways were clear, I was suffering from chronic sinusitis. Ever since I was a child, if a doctor ever asked me if I had allergies my answer was "no", based on what my parents had told me. This time, I answered the question a little differently, "not that I know of." I don't know why I chose those words this time, perhaps out of desperation, but he recommended an immunologist. Skeptically, I made an appointment. As I sat in the office and the nurse made about forty different marks on my forearms, it occurred to me, that to the best of my recollection, I had never gone through this procedure. As she carefully placed forty different common allergens on the different marks, I became more sure. When she went over them with a small blade and made small cuts under the allergens, I was sure I'd never done this before.

It was actually quite fascinating, there were control substances, saline for a non-reaction (0), and histamine for a full reaction (4+). It turns out that I have a severe allergic reaction (4+) to dust-mites and a slight reaction (2-2+) to some types of mold. This is bad news considering these are hard to avoid things, but good news in that we now had culprits to focus our attention on. I'm doing sinus rinse every evening which consist of saline, and a liquid steroid. I take an occasional antihistamine, and have taken steps to eliminate dust mite sources in the house. I ordered some mattress covers and some pillow covers, and I feel as though my life has changed. I so much healthier, so much so, that I have been able to get back to the gym and have started to exercise again. I am filled with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the remainder of the school year.

Happy holidays everyone!