Been awhile...

Life's been busy. Although, I'm sure it's been like that for everyone else too. Whenever I do have down time, I do think about blogging, but the time commitment to sit down and process my thoughts just seems too time intensive so I end up just sleeping or vegging out in front of the TV. Instead of updating about events, I'm going to just focus on something that has really been encouraging me lately.

As I become more "seasoned" in my faith (to be more exact, as I get older), it gets harder to be excited or passionate all the time. If I'm really honest with myself, it gets freakin hard with the increase in stress and responsibilities. All this is without any girlfriend or wife worries either! Because my life sometimes feels so "blah", whenever I see someone really seeking to grow, it just gets me so happy.

This year, the crop of new students has really given me an excitement for them. It's just so refreshing to see them wanting to learn more, and when they go ahead and live out their faith WITHOUT BEING TOLD, it just puts a huge smile on my face. Part of me is slightly jealous at their fresh faith, but a bigger part of me is just so proud of them and happy for them.

I really feel like this will be the group that will start something great on this campus, so please keep our church in prayer.

Little Encouragements

I'm such a loser. Not in the typical "I can't win" sense, (which is obviously not true, ;) ) but when it comes to needing validation in what I'm doing. Even now as I'm doing a quick update, I'm looking at my wall and I have pictures of friends and family, encouraging notes and mementos (yes I keep all of them), and general paraphernalia that keep me optimistic.

As work has been a constant struggle with the endless meetings and lesson planning and modifications, I've been quickly becoming drained and discouraged at my students' lack of retention and my lack of improvement at teaching. As all the veteran teachers have been telling me, "You'll suck your first 3 years of teaching", I still hate to be the status quo. Anyways, I've been getting lots of visits from interventionists giving suggestions on changing my schedule (always constructive, but still criticism), visits from my Assistant principal doing informal evaluations, and mandatory meetings to learn about different teaching techniques.

I might rant in a later post about all those meetings/trainings later on, but that's not the point of this post. After a mediocre 1st 6 weeks, I was looking forward to a fresh start in my 2nd 6 week semester. Too bad the past week SUCKED. My afternoon class is "difficult"... to put it mildly. After each day, I feel like I've fought a 3 hour battle with them and want to do nothing else but eat junk food and sleep (which I do).

Yesterday though, I got an email from my AP (assistant principal) that honestly brightened up my day. I wish I could be less reliant on people pleasing, but it gave me renewed hope for the year.

Tim,

Just wanted to let you know that I think you are doing a great job so far! You are extremely reflective about your teaching practices, open to suggestions and take proactive steps to do what is best to support kids in any way you can. You will have your ups and downs on a daily basis in your first year, as you already have I'm sure, but you are off to a great start. I wanted you to know that your efforts do not go unnoticed.

Have a great weekend!