Will I ever not be tired?

These days I find myself absolutely exhausted, absolutely all of the time. Will I ever not be tired?

I'm beginning to think the answer is "not this side of Heaven!"

Tomorrow I am taking the final exam in a class I have been in for the last two weeks. It is an intensive phonics program. I will come out of it with three college units and a certificate saying that I am certified to teach something I have been teaching for several years now. I guess now I can do it the right way!

I did learn a few things.

I learned a new approach to spelling dictation that might help my students become better spellers and therefore better readers. Time will tell.

I learned that if you try really hard you can tie pull-apart cherry twizzlers into figure 8 knots with your tongue while saying the six sounds of the phonogram "ough."

I learned that when you drink as many diet cokes in the last two weeks as I have you will run out of grocery money before the week is up.

I learned the precise meaning of the word "palacial" and was labeled by one of my co-workers as a "geek who loves words" because I already knew what a manse, skein, and berth were.

And now I must go back to studying the meaning of task analysis, massed and distributed practice, attention management and the precise meaning why we double a consonant after a single vowel when adding an ending that begins with a vowel. And I must ask myself if anyone really cares why?

And then I will sleep. But I will wake up tired!