You read my mind from far, far away.

by therookiediaries

I read the email below at 3 am while trying to finish analyzing the data from my student’s 1st round  of Interim Assessments from this past week.

Subject: The depths of October…

Message: This is probably the hardest part of your year.  I imagine that you are working upwards of 80 hours a week.  Management issues are probably resurfacing.  The days are getting darker and shorter.  This is a difficult time.  Yet you will get through it.  Your kids are learning and becoming better every day because you are in front of their class every day.  So two questions..

 

1. How is it going?

2. Is there anything we can do to help you?

 

This kind and all-too-true note is from one of my Match Teacher Residency coaches. He was a fabulous coach then and, as you can see, is a fabulous support system now. The email made me smile. And then frown. He was correct.  The first six sentences perfectly mimic how I feel right now, and how I’ve felt for the past week. October is a long road, notorious in the teacher-world for being, at times, unbearable.

 

I was reminded of this in my graduate school class this past weekend as well. My teacher literally showed us a picture of a long road (the first image that popped up when he googled the phrase) that seemed never ending.

 

He said, this is probably how you feel right now. There are no signs that grading and parent calls become less frequent. There are no signs that I won’t have behavioral problems on any given day. There are no signs that I will have a chance to sit down during the day. Yep.

 

 

He broke it to us gently:…and it won’t go away. What?

 

Panic momentarily sunk in. He reminded all of us, though, that what keeps him going each day is reminding himself of the many positive aspects of teaching. I sat in class and reflected that, amongst sleeping less and continuously grading, my students are learning, making progress and becoming invested in learning. I think all of that, or even just one of those, outweighs the woes of October.

 

This certainly does…

 

Shaffie (one of my shining stars): “Miss, um…Kelly. You inspire me to find what I truly love to do when I grow up. And…I like your eye lashes.”