1 Week Down

While Shane has night practice tonight I decided it would be a great time to get started on the large stack of things I have to do this weekend in order to plan and prepare for next week's lessons and grade the assignments from the past week. I also decided that posting a quick blog would be a great way to procrastinate and put off the never ending work week (an 8 hour work day for a teacher is a complete joke. . . . non existent).

 Here is a picture of my work computer that is constantly by my side.

These were waiting for me at home to congratulate me on surviving my first week (from my wonderful husband of course). : )

Overall the first week was completely exhausting for both of us!

Shane was up at the crack of dawn each day to fit a work out in, then didn't get home from school/practice til around 7:30 (= 14 hour days).

We both did our best to stay awake while eating our dinner, but after having 2 months of a more laid back schedule, jumping back into the swing of things and being "on" for 8 hours or more a day in front of a group of students can be utterly exhausting! Especially when you come home only to finish dinner before round 2 of honing lesson plans and responding to a days worth of emails from work.

All in all it was a great week for both of us and our hope and prayer is that God will continue to shape us all year long into better more engaging teachers as we try to reach all of our students and all their individualized learning needs.

Middle schoolers are definitely funny and make me laugh often. Below are a few funny high lights from the week.

* Most of my students think I look like some character on the Disney Channel-Victoria Justice? Heard of her? Yeah me neither-but they were practically star struck (maybe they'll respect me more with the whole "awe of celebrity thing" )

* The letters my students wrote me the first day of school are not only a great diagnostic piece for their writing capabilities, but also gave me some insight into how they viewed themselves. "I'm a 12 year old teenager" hmmmmm-greeeaaaat : )

* Today while talking about static characters in literature and stereotypes I asked the students for some stereotypes they have heard. One girl shot her hand up to inform me that a "Notherner" stereotype was that all Northerners love to hang out at Starbucks and use Wifi. Haha-I will admit I do love free Wifi! : )

My one worry of the school year is that life will fly by and that I will have limited time to keep in touch with the family and friends I love so dearly and think of on a daily basis! I hope to find balance, but if it seems like I have fallen off the face of the earth-it's because I have!!!

Love you all! -M.W.