Adjustments

Don't you just love having to get adjusted to things?! It has to be one of my least favorite things ever. Okay, so it's really not that bad, but I do not adapt fast to things. This past week was my first week in the world of teaching real-life style and man was it something that I am going to have to get use to! Getting up early...really early for me... does not work well with me at all. Then I realize that Oh crap..this is going to be my life from here on out. Getting up at 6 AM (or earlier), going to work, coming home, planning lessons, doing dinner, clean the house?, get ready for the next day, go to bed, and repeat. I think that should go on a bottle of something, like it's on shampoo: wet, lather, rinse, repeat! That would take a large bottle! Sorry got off track..let's get back on. This week Sam and I have been getting adjusted to the new way of our lives. He is still in the state of adjustment with his new job. He is driving a lot longer and getting up a lot earlier than he use to. There have been a whirlwind of emotions and frustrations and excitements and so many others this past week for me, but MAN it is taking some adjusting!

I did have a great first week student teaching for those who are wondering. There is a lot of stuff that I have questions about, but it has nothing to do with actual teaching, just the formal APSU stuff. I am excited about getting to actually teach real lessons that I plan. If they bomb, then they bomb and I will make changes to try again. That's what happens in the real world. If its great, then its great! Everything can be changed and adjusted as needed and that is what I like. This week I will be teaching about World War II. I have been running ideas in my head like crazy for the past week and am finally going to put them to action this week. It's nice to know that the aggravation that I have been through was well worth getting to be at the point that I am now. That does not mean that the chance for aggravation is over, but it is worth it that.

Sam reminded me the other night of why I am doing what I am doing because to be quite honest I was just not feeling it at all. He wanted me to try and forget about everything that I have been through with this thing called college and remember why I decided that teaching was for me. I remembered...

Sam and I were sitting in a classroom at his parents church 3-4 years ago. At the time, the church was meeting in a school building while their church building was being built. I remember sitting there not paying a lick of attention to the class (cause it was way over my head) and staring at the walls. I looked at the posters, the signs from the students, and everything else in that room. I felt at home. I felt that this is what I am suppose to be doing. I sat in that room and thought back to the teachers that influenced or put a mark in my life. That's when I knew that I wanted to be that teacher. I wanted to be a teacher that one day a student thought back to while sitting in another class and say "Man, she was the best teacher! She taught me so many great things and influenced my life!" I want to make a difference in childrens lives even if it is in the smallest way possible. This is what I have to remember. I have to forget all the frustrating lesson plan formats, the tears of anger from being so frustrated at it all and remember that this is what I have to do to one day make a difference to just one child. That is why I chose to be a teacher and that is why I WILL get up early, I WILL go to work, and I WILL get adjusted. (and then get the summers off! ;)