Indentured Servitude

As those of you who have made the vain attempt to invite me various places over the last month may have noticed, I have pretty much dropped off the social radar. With the occasional exception, you should plan on not seeing much of me until January 21, when my student teaching assignment will be complete. I have decided to pour myself completely into it, hardly doing anything else at all. I barely watch TV, with the exception of Scrubs and the occasional Family Guy or Futurama rerun. I get up at about 5:30 and arrive at school everyday by 7:00 in order to get the classroom set up for the day. (In other words...don't even think of inviting me out on a "school night", as most invitations will be politely refused.)

I realize I might be going overboard on this, and might relax a bit as the semester wears on but, for now, this is the way it is. So, don't take it personally if an e-mail of yours goes unanswered for quite some time, or if I don't return your phone calls. In the last thirty days, I have only sent 11 e-mails...that's pretty low for me. And updating this blog will definitely be a VERY LOW PRIORTY until January. But, again...don't be offended. It's not you...it's me. I need to focus on school and am doing my best to avoid distractions. And all of you people are distractions!!!

There are, of course, exceptions that can and have been made. Last Friday night, I was convinced by Shane Ross and his fiancée, Jessica, to head out for a bit. They came and picked me up, and we drove down to the Los Feliz area for a late night snack at the hipster 24-hour diner, Fred 62, on Vermont Avenue. It was an acceptable break, mostly because it was a Friday night and I didn't have to wake up at 5:30 the next day.

It's a lot of work but so far I'm really enjoying it. We're coming up on the ending of the fourth week of school (which means I only have 16 weeks left to go!) and all is well. The students have started testing me to see what they can get away with. For a few days it looked like they were going to win until I lowered the hammer and started being a total jerk. They have slowly begun to realize that a nice Mr. Stahl is far more agreeable than a mean one and are adjusting their behavior accordingly. Ha! Take that!

One of the most challenging aspects this semester is that the school I am at is on block schedule...which means the periods are 97 minutes long. Holding the attention of seventh graders for 97 minutes is pretty difficult at times...you've got to be pretty animated and outgoing, which is slightly challenging for a guy like me who is the very essence of "low key."

While I am thoroughly enjoying myself, I'm still feeling that high school is ultimately a better fit for me, as I'm not sure I possess the necessary energy to deal with middle schoolers on a full time basis. But, we'll see how it goes.