Staying Afloat

"Has three weeks gone by this quickly?"

"Has it only been three weeks?"

It might seem paradoxical for me to be thinking both of those thoughts at the same time, but I find myself in a place where time is going by very fast and very slow. I like what I'm doing, so it goes by quickly, but it takes SO much energy. Teaching is tough. I was not expecting to have to juggle so many things at the same time. It seems like the book is never closed on anything. I'm the type of person who likes to make checklists in my head and check items off of the list as they come and go. Having a checklist with a thousand little items (grade that one late assignment, print out the lessons for tomorrow, take attendance, meet So-and-So at the door to talk over what happened yesterday, etc.) is maddening on occasion. I have chosen a profession that might make you go crazy, but I haven't let it. Not yet, at least!

This past week could have been a lot more overwhelming if it hadn't been for the two snow days in the middle. I found that I got quite a bit of work done during those hours where I would have been teaching or en route to Danville. I managed to get ahead in lesson planning, but I will fall behind yet again if I don't make the most of tomorrow's day off. (Yea, Presidents!) My cousin, who taught high school math for a while, has told me that you don't have to make every lesson a home run. If you try to make every one fantastic and memorable for its presentation, you'll find yourself getting burned out. Content can be taught well without being flashy. I definitely want to teach lessons that impress my students and let them have a good time, but some of the time, a traditional lesson is needed.

I'm also having difficulty getting into a routine. Since the classroom isn't entirely mine and won't be until I'm a full-fledged (ie. paid) teacher, I can't completely transform things. Honestly, I'm not even sure what I would change, and that's part of the reason we all student teach. I think I might try next week to grade homework for completion and then give a homework quiz on Friday based on the assignments. Students will then have the whole week to complete assignments, and if they gave them their best shot then they should do well on the quiz. Trying out things like that is what this experience is about. If it works, awesome; if not, then I won't do that next year.

There are times when it feels like I'm sinking because of all there is to do and all that goes on, but there are many positives, and it's not the end of the world if I mess up. Even little things like having a student say she really understood something after I explained it one-on-one to her can push me back up to the surface. Sometimes the victories are bigger, like when I had the entire eighth hour class' attention for probably 30 minutes during a lesson. Managing their behavior is the toughest part, and to do that for a while feels pretty good, but each day is a chance to improve on the last. Maybe I'll have their attention for 31 minutes on Tuesday. I'll keep working and learning and staying afloat. Maybe after a while, it won't feel like the waters are so rough.