Teaching is SO. freaking. hard. Part 3.

Yes, this is part 3.

Dead Poet's Society and Good Will Hunting have completely mislead me about what teaching is really like. What it's really like is mountains and mountains of paperwork and storming into the boys bathroom because the kids cannot be trusted to be in there by themselves and working in a school with no A/C and trying to plan for a class with 19 boys and 9 girls where one scholar is reading on a 5th grade level and another is reading at a Kindergarten level and everyone else is in between. What it's really like is having no free time at all because you also have grad school two nights a week and spend all of your time either planning for school, feeling guilty about not planning for school (aka now), doing grad school work or attending grad school. What it's really like is getting up at 5:30am and not getting a minute to yourself until 9:30pm, when you decide that even though there is still so much more you should do, you need to call it quits for the day to salvage some shred of your former self.

Today I put on a pair of high heels while I was unpacking a suitcase just so that for a split second I could remember what it felt like to be a person that people listened to, and respected...a person that was powerful. I may be losing it already. Ha!

To be honest, it could be much, much, MUCH worse (re: Monica's experience last year). And my school is awesome and I have a co-teacher and a supportive administration. I guess it's just a matter of whipping these kids into shape and figuring out how to better balance my life, because right now it's 25% sleep, 70% work, 5% rest of my life. Oh yeah, and planning a wedding is in that 5%.

So, please pray for me and my mental and physical health (and Tyler's as well-- he's seriously at 90% work, 10% sleep, 0% rest of life). I promise a more upbeat post next time?