adventures of boot

Just over a month ago I was playing frisbee and right in the middle of it all, for absolutely no reason, my big toe started hurting like CRAZY. I thought I'd strained my toe somehow but didn't know how. I left the field feeling pretty inept, and limped around for the next week on it. After six or seven days I thought it was getting better. It still hurt, but not near as much.

Just over a week ago I stubbed my toe. It hurt. Real bad. So, I went to a podiatrist who took x-rays, poked around, asked me questions, printed a shoe list, and told me to try a boot for two weeks. So, I'm trying a boot for two weeks. These are the adventures of boot and me.

I wasn't sure what to think at first.

But, I got over my misgivings. And since then we've been doing everything together!

We went to see the Mississippi. This is the view on the way to Memphis. Please notice the tree near the bottom left. It's almost covered with water. That's not normal.

This is what the river looks like when it's trying to get onto the interstate.

I was a little nervous.

But boot really took it like a champ.

Boot has a calming influence on me. We've done other things together, like go to work, go on dates, paint houses, say prayers, make dinner, everything. Boot tried to drive once though, I put my foot down there. There have to be some boundaries.

I can't tell if my toe's getting better or not. When it's in the boot it feels fine (unless I try to move real fast or something). When I take it off, most of the time it hurts, but sometimes it's okay. I'll go back to the podiatrist in a week and see what she has to say. Until then, boot and I are minding our p's and q's.

18 days. Those were the first words another teacher said to me as we walked into school this morning. That means 3.5 weeks until the end of the school year. That's CRAZY! I can do 18 more days.

We took our End of Course test today. All of the 9th graders were in desks in the gym. I wish I could have had a picture of it, but it reminded me of the BYU testing center. I was impressed with how well behaved they were, and I'm pretty hopeful about what's going to come out of it. Hopefully I'll know how my students scored in the next week or two.

To finish out the year we've got an interesting mix. I've decided to show my students Stand and Deliver this year, I'm not sure if they'll be able to relate to the students in the film, but I hope it will be inspiring. We still have to do a monster unit on factoring, and then we'll finish with a practice ACT. I think (and hope) it's going to be jam-packed. I feel like my lessons keep getting better and better, classroom management is still a sore spot, but I know now I really like math.

I'll be teaching a GED program this summer and am really excited about that. I'm still not sure where I'll go or what I'll do after the summer, but I am thinking remedial math at a junior or community college sounds like a great idea. 18 days. Yeah, I think I can do that and I think my kids can too.