Miss Miss

Reflecting in writing has not been second nature to me since college.  The summer before my junior year I became obsessed with writing in my journal so that I could eventually come back to it one day and read my life story.  That worked well when I had an office job for two months and found myself with an unbelievable amount of "down time."  I read 13 books in those two months and filled an entire journal.  I think it is safe to say that the summer of 2000 was an all time high for me in terms of reading and journal writing. When I began teaching I learned that the luxury of working on my own stuff was a thing of the past.  Not only did I not have time to describe a fight I had gotten into with a friend during work hours, but now I hardly had time to see my friends outside of work, let alone get into an argument with them.

I have been teaching for ten years, but it hasn't specifically gotten easier.  Certain things have of course, such as management and efficiency, but each year is different.  The past couple of years have been especially challenging for me.  I changed positions.  My teaching schedule is fuller than most.  Since my school is small, teachers are given tasks like breakfast duty and lunch detention duty, leaving less and less time for planning, phone calls, etc. during the day.  Some days I come home feeling exhausted and defeated and not sure what I could be doing differently.  I end up venting to my poor boyfriend or to co-workers after school or to friends who are also teachers, but I'm at a point where I think it will be more beneficial to reflect in written form because talking about it (venting) mostly just makes me more exhausted.  My reflections will be accessible for others who may be feeling the same way, allow me to determine what worked and what didn't, and will push me to follow-through with different ideas and procedures...at least that's the plan!