It was an interesting week. I was in for the same teacher every day, Tuesday through Thursday. She had been out since late September, which is a long time for a class to have a series of substitutes. They were a really good class, all in all. I'm a little surprised that they weren't able to get one of the previous teachers to repeat, although one other (fellow?) appeared to have come in twice(?).

Knowing that I was returning the next day made things easier in some ways and harder in others. I was there an extra 2 hours each afternoon (except the last) setting up the lesson plan for the next day. The extra hours made it harder; having a lesson plan that I was familar with each morning made it easier. By the end, I felt like I was within one day of having the schedule down pat and not feeling so rushed. On the last day, I actually had about 20 minutes during lunch where I could sit and work on my 'real life' schedule, instead of scrambling to get things ready for the next period the entire day.

So, having 10 hours each day dedicated to doing the substitute-thing meant I was working hard on my lesson plan for my graduate class late into the evening several times. I still have some chasing to do, but I'm in pretty good shape right now. Good thing, because I need to scramble to get the reading and other assignments done for tomorrow's class.

The other interesting thing for this week: with the nights getting colder we're finding the Yar cat and the Cat with A Thousand Names curled up on the foot of the bed more often. It's nice but it means that we get pushed towards the edges of the bed. These are big cats, and they want to take their half out of the middle. Fortunately, they're both good for a snuggle and a purr. I think we'll keep them.