I'm TAKING 5 - OMG!

I'm so on a roll - 2 days in a row! This has been a really long, but good, week. I feel like I had such an "extreme teaching" week. A friend/colleague from Heritage and I have put together a French 3 PLC, and we worked together for the first time on Tues. It was so nice to work with someone who shares my teaching philosophy. It's not that I don't want to be challenged by people who think differently than I do, but my last French PLC meetings haven't exactly been fruitful or positive. This teacher and I shared a lot of ideas and really mapped out what we want our students to be able to do by the end of the year. Plus, we shared a ton of ideas and materials. Then, after yesterday's 21st C meeting, I almost feel like I'm in grad school again. My brain has that sort of super saturated feeling. I don't know if that makes any sense. I guess my head just feels extremely FULL right now to the point that it's kind of cobwebby. I'm so glad that it's Friday so I can have the weekend to think things out and plan things (All these ideas and thoughts are backing up, and it's overwhelming!)
Plus, I had such a strange class today. I LOVE my first-year French classes! They have such positive attitudes - even if some of them have work ethics that leave something to be desired... Today I took a girl's i-pod, and I'd caught her listening to it before. She was so angry at me about it! She swore up and down that she wasn't going to listen to it, and that she was hurt that I would "think she'd lie to me about it." Oh my goodness....it's not like she hadn't set a bad precedent! She even went as far as to write me a letter telling me that her trust in ME was now shaken!!!!! Don't get me wrong - I was NOOOOOOO angel in high school! I did things that I WILL NOT mention on-line for the world to see, but I never had the audacity to address a teacher like that! I may have been bad in some ways, but I made sure I never crossed the line of disrespect with a teacher. This is one of those situations that I don't know if I need to let drop or if I should confront her about it. My first instinct was to let it pass, but she's been on my radar a lot lately. I think she's pretty good at manipulating people, and I don't trust her one bit. I guess I'll decide the next time I see her.
Then, RIGHT after I read the letter she left me, a student that came in for the next class said that she heard I was an amazing teacher and that she wishes she'd taken French. It was such a nice thing to hear! I know I'm super friendly, and I have a reputation for that (also for being super caffeinated.....), but I don't hear very often if kids really think they're learning from me. Well, I guess lately I'm hearing that more. A lot of parents told me that at conferences. It's stupid how much I need external affirmation, but this is that time of the fall when most teachers start to feel like they're horrible teachers b/c we AND the kids are so burnt out. I think that was a shot in the arm that will help me feel better about spending an inordinate time this weekend grading my huge stack of papers!!! Oh, but that kind of dedication's the mark of a great teacher, right? Har har.