Last Week of Freedom...

And the end of July arrives. Summer went by way too fast, and now I only have a week left. Where did all that time go? The time that I was so eagerly looking forward to on Memorial Day Weekend?

I guess time flies when you are having fun?

Next week will mark the beginning of my second year of teaching. After a teaching conference last week, part of me is really excited to get it going. Bring it on! :)

Of course, I can't help but feel anxious about this school year. Last year was my first year of teaching ever. It was supposed to be a hard year. Indeed, it did have some truly difficult moments, like when a parent questioned my ability to teach her son due to my lack of seasoning with adolescents, or maybe when a student was hard to control at the end of the year, but those moments were few and far between. I had many excellent moments, like the Assistant Superintendent remembering my lesson plan, or my student developing a compound-complex sentence out of manipulatives when we were still learning compound, or when my students got really involved in our climate change research unit... just to name a few. All the happy moments, the triumphs, outweigh the bad ones. In short, I had a wonderful first year of teaching.

It makes me worry about this year. Is this the year when reality will bite? Is this the year where I will struggle under the expectations I set for myself last year? Is this the year I disappoint others? Is this the year I struggle with difficult, hard to manage students? Is this the year where I have kids who really just don't care and are openly defiant about it? Is this the year where I have kids who simply cannot and will not learn the content-- no matter what hoops I may jump through to get them to?


"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil 4:6-7

I've been praying about this coming school year and my anxiety towards it, and I feel that on Saturday I got an answer to my prayer. I cannot remember the verse exactly (and I think it was paraphrased), but it was on a teacher gift at a Christian bookstore. It's general meaning is that God gives you gifts and talents that you use well in this world. My friend also has a quote she uses that simply says that teaching is a ministry. Sooo... if I smash those two ideas together... God has given me a gift that I need to use to glorify Him. If I stay focused on Him, then He will guide me through the year... no matter what.

So, as characters on a show I watched growing up say,

Here goes!