Every day while I am teaching, I put all of my personal thoughts on hold and become completely consumed with teaching. Because all my kids are on so many different levels, and I have to remember so many different things about each student and each task, there is no room for my brain to be anywhere else but on school.

Every day as soon as my kids leave my classroom and my conference period begins, my brain immediately turns the school part off. I cannot think about school for another second or my brain will explode. I have to “de-consume” my thoughts and turn them elsewhere.

This has resulted in a lot of wasted time. Some of my common conference-period activities include:

• using Google Maps distance measurement tool to figure out the distance of different paths I might run
• searching the web for Polish praise and worship song lyrics
• going to check my mail slot in the teachers lounge every 5 minutes. It is always empty.
• going to the next door teacher’s room and getting a snack (currently: candy corn and peanuts)
• making a grocery list or to do list for when I get home
• doing my Bible study or writing for my blog
• searching missions sending agencies for trips

I just have to do something that will take my brain off of division models and story sequencing and behavior plans and paperwork.

Normally my guilty time-wasting pleasure is reading blogs (as I have mentioned before, my specialties are homeschool moms or adoptive moms). But blogs are blocked by the school’s internet filter. So I have turned my thirst for “non-school” to new territory…

cnn.com

I have never been into news or current events or politics or pop culture or anything that cnn.com might have to offer, but it has recently become a great escape. This also comes with the benefit of being more informed. Not that I read important, weighty articles. I mostly read trivial articles. For instance, today I learned that Obama’s favorite food is chili and Taylor Swift writes/co-writes all her own music.

So watch out world, now that I have somewhere new to direct my thoughts, I will begin sharing useless “news” trivia with all who will listen. Anything to keep my over-worked brain from exploding.

PS I watched The Newsies for the first time ever this weekend, and it was amazing. I have to watch it again ASAP.