Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the category “time management”

19 Nov 2012
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R and R. Mmmhmmm


The "gravedigger scene" The Gravedig...

The “gravedigger scene” The Gravedigger Scene: Hamlet 5.1.1–205. (Artist: Eugène Delacroix 1839) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

After a couple of tough weeks of school there is nothing like a weekend getaway.  Grabbed a few foodstuffs, a couple of changes of clothes, and of course, school work.  But hey, at least I’d be doing lesson plans in a change of scenery.

 

First thing I did was nap.  Then I grabbed my Hamlet homework and dug in.  Even though I’ve taught Hamlet for the last three years, and really, really like the play, I know I have to up my game since I am know teaching it ala AP.  Deeper, richer, more insights–get some questions (try to know the answers).  I was delighted to find that my iPhone internet connection functioned which meant I didn’t have to pay the WiFi fee.  Heck, I didn’t even use my laptop this weekend.

 

I all kinds of Hamlet helps on the Internet.  One especially helpful site was called Shakespeare Navigators.  I drained my iPhone battery working the site so much and had to drive around to charge it up.  Gave me an excuse to go down to the Safeway (a good 40 minute drive) to stock up on essentials like Peppermint Bark Haagen Daz.  You know Christmas is around the corner when the Peppermint Bark comes out.  Fortunately MEPA met up with me on Saturday and brought my charger.  Whew.  A good personal assistant is more valuable than all the Haagen Daz in the freezer.

 

I tried to NaNo while R and R-ing and managed to get the posts up.  I didn’t manage to update my word count until I got home and looking at my statistics and posting three days worth of word count bloated my chart slightly.

 

Your Average Per Day: 1,934
Words Written Today: 4,967
Total Words Written: 34,827
Words Remaining: 15,173
At This Rate You Will Finish On: November 25, 2012
Words Per Day To Finish On Time: 1,168
There is no truth to the stat I wrote nearly 5,000 today.  Nope, didn’t happen.  I do like seeing I might finish early.  That would call for more Peppermint Bark.

 

 

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Posted in Blogging, Teachers, time management, travel, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged , , , ,
06 Nov 2012
6 Comments

DST and a Tough Week Ahead for Me


First page of Benjamin Franklin's anonymous le...

First page of Benjamin Franklin’s anonymous letter to the editors of the Journal de Paris, April 26, 1784. The letter is a satire proposing various methods to awaken Parisians early in the morning in order to save money on candles, and presages the idea of daylight saving time. The letter is untitled and appears in the “Économie” section of the journal. The original letter was in English but this, its first publication, is a French translation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No matter when I go to bed I automatically wake up around 5 am.  Good thing I’m a morning person.  This usually is not a problem for me because I actually enjoy getting up early and having the best part of the day to myself. I find myself embracing the cadence of morning. However, I do not embrace 4 am, which DST has reinstated since Sunday.  I can push the clock back an hour, not so easily my body clock.  Daylight Saving Time and I do not see eye to eye.

Which brings me to notion of how art imitates life.  Currently I am involved in NaNoWriMo and have even gone as far as inflicting sharing my daily NaNo entries with readers as a separate blog.  Consider this an invitation: www.veranano.wordpress.com.  The main character has many of my tendencies, dark chocolate breaks, being one of them.  “Vera” also dislikes DST as much as I do.  In fact, she turned her rant against Ben Franklin, the inventory of Daylight Saving Time, into a scathing persuasive essay called “Death to DST” (or words to that effect) as an English assignment.  I’m hoping she’ll get a good grade on it.

This week is a good week for that extra hour of sleep, although getting up earlier seems to nullify the bonus time. Yes, this week is the official beginnings of second quarter and with it comes Parent-Teacher conferences.  My school runs them two nights and gives teachers Friday off.  We are very much ready by then for a long weekend. We teach all day on Wednesday and then PT until 7 pm–basically a twelve hour day.  Thursday we meet as departments and then meet with parents from 3:30 until 7 pm once again.  It’s part of the job, yet it is grueling.  I actually like meeting with the parents and discussing their student, except there is usually a buffalo herd of moms and dads hanging out in the hall waiting their turn.  I try not to drink too much water because breaks are far and few between.

DST, NaNo, and PTs–it’s one of those weeks of sucking it up yet needing to find time to breathe.

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Posted in education, Teachers, time management, Writing and tagged , , , , ,
12 Jul 2012
5 Comments

Rocks and Boxes and Framing up Life


Book Cover

Book Cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I used to roll my eyes at self-help books, you know the ones, someone gets a theme going and a trend gets going that sweeps everyone away–at least for a time.  Parachute colors, cheese moving, flat abs, beach diets, being okay.  Yup, it’s all out there.  And yes, some of these books have changed lives and have contributed to shifting paradigms.  Then again, some of these books are momentary blips that end up at the Friends of the Library book sale six months later.

There is one book I do endorse, and in a recent conversation with a Gen Y‘er who  talked about time management and how this book really helped him, I recalled the importance of re-introducing this book to my students. Here is the promotional video that drives home the point of getting priorities right:

Actually, that promotional clip comes from the first book, Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  I use his son’s version, Sean Covey‘s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.  He made points with my students with his approach and humor, and the best part is that many of them learned from his book.  I would dearly love to meet up with them ten, maybe fifteen years down the road and find out if the book’s principles stuck with them.  The theme of his book is framed (you’ll get the pun after the clip) well in this promo clip:

So, question for the day: what self-help books have worked for you?

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