Days fly by...

I must start this post with an apology. It has been far too long since I have posted on my blog. The life of a first year teacher is a blur I decided. It is crazy how the weeks fly by.

Tonight as I sit on my amazing red couch, I am baffled by the fact that Monday starts my 6th week of teaching. I would like to say that my students are little angels and always listen to every thing I say, but sadly we are not there yet. We will get there though. Things are getting better every week. The students are learning that they can't get away with certain things with me, and we are jumping into more curriculum. I am learning as well. Every week I learn from mistakes and feel more comfortable in my new role as a classroom teacher.

While the last month has been a blur, the month ahead will fly by even faster. The next two weekends I will be leaving Kansas City for two weddings. Next weekend I will be hopping on a plane to Denver where I am lucky to watch two amazing people get married. I am SO excited to see my "family" from San Francisco and catch up with old friends.

The next weekend I have the honor of standing up for one of my best friends, Danni. I am excited to see all my closest friends from high school as well as my mom and dad for the day. God knows exactly when I need the comforts of home. It is always nice to have these moments planned to help me get through those rough days.

I hope that this post finds you all well. I hope that you have had the chance to slow down and see God working in your life. It is pretty humbling to stop and realize how awesome our God is.

Rollercoaster

Teaching is a rollercoaster.  There are so many twists and turns and ups and downs.  

I am an emotional wreck at times.

This job is harder than I ever imagined.  I think that I had this big dream that it would be different for me.  That my students would actually listen and inspire to be anything they can be.  That my students would become driven to all achieve amazing things in my classroom, and we would blow all of their test scores out of the water. 

Instead, I have students that cry, throw fits, flip tables, and yell all because they don't want to do a simple worksheet.  For most of the students, they are upset because they cannot do it.  They don't get it.  They cannot write, they cannot read, they cannot count...... you name it, they struggle with it.  So how do I help them?  How do we get past the fits and tears to actual learning? 

I have found there is no magic pill.  No matter what I do, tomorrow I will not have 19 students silent in their seats all excited to do math problems or write for me.  That is asking the impossible though.  I have to realize that learning is a process.  Trust is a process.  There will be no learning in my classroom until my students trust me.  

SO, tomorrow I will greet my students at the door, and do my very best to continue building trust.  I will encourage my students and push my students with the hope that someday along the road this year a light bulb will click and each student will finally believe that he/she really can learn.  

Till then, I will pray that God gives me the patience and courage to walk into school each day and help my students slowly reach their dreams.