The second semester has started, and though I can tell there is one class period that will not be perfect, everything is much easier this semester. I can simply already tell based on the kids, my organization, and my level of "tired" being less than it was last semester. I also am surprised at how many of my children from last semester (including and even especially the ones who seemed to hate me most) keep popping their little heads in to say hello and ask me how I am. They seem to want to come back to my class, which, for some of them, is definitely not what I expected. I am still teaching my AP class and Honors class from last semester (which is every other day), and I love both of those classes--AP especially. Though at first I was scared to teach Advanced Placement, to be honest, it is the most natural for me. I run my classroom very similarly to college unless I have to do otherwise, so teaching this class seems to fit like a glove. It is the other classes that have required stretching.
My two new sets of students are regular Juniors and another set of regular Seniors. I am happy to report, that, overall, they are easier than my Seniors from last semester (though I loved them too, those dear crazy children). My current Seniors seem close to perfect, and my Juniors are not that bad either. I have also learned (from a combination of co-workers, simple experience, and the Holy Spirit's advice) how to teach simpler--with less work for me and more work for the students. I have started teaching my classes of 30-something students like I would if I were homeschooling: finding curriculum (usually not found at school), dividing it up according to days, and making a set schedule of work that is due. I also have made bell work different for every day of the week in order to bring specific purpose to each day.
So, Mondays are silent reading day and quiz days, Tuesdays are Creative Writing Journal days, Wednesdays are Reading Comprehension days, Thursdays are Writing days, and Fridays are grammar and makeup work from the week days. Each day has a purpose, and the content folds into the day in simple, 20 min. segments that make me neither tired nor irritated. Vocabulary, Grammar, and Literary Terms are items that fall into almost everyday at set times and according to preset curriculum that I don't have to make from scratch.
...I feel like, for most of my teaching career, I have been making from-scratch content biscuits, and my students have been begging for McDonald's instead (a very frustrating predicament indeed). Students were always shouting "Where are the Worksheets?" when I made them think too much with all of my original content. So, now, I have given them a mixture: Some already-made items that save me time and calm my nerves, and some just from my brain that are difficult and grueling and always worth it. I have never felt happier or more balanced in my teaching than right now. I finally have a system I can work with, and plenty of materials I can re-use from previous teaching experiences. (I had tried some of this at North, but unlike then, now it's working!)
But my current state of peace and happiness is about more than life being easier at school. It's even more so about feeling eternally purposeful at school. If I were only to teach kids grammar, literature, and vocabulary, I would be doing nothing for them that matters forever; I would only be fulfilling temporal needs which will drift away with the sands of time and death. But lately, I have been having conversations that do matter in the course of eternity. Talks with students after school about the Bible as literature and truth. Book suggestions that have to do with theology, doctrine, and truths about Christ that the church often forgets. Discussions about absolute truth in a subjective-driven society. Talks about author's world-views, different kinds of world-views, and why these matter.
Things that matter in the light of eternity have been falling into my lap as gifts from the Father, and I couldn't be more happy about that. They don't happen every day or in every class (in fact, because of the dynamics, they almost always happen in Honors & AP only), but they are happening in much more abundance than last semester. Praise the Lord! And Praise Him for giving me not only opportunities but also words to speak when I am not in the Word like I should be. God could have closed up my mouth at any point this week due to my unfaithfulness, but He chose to bless me despite myself. He chose to send his Holy Spirit when I neither deserved it nor honored Him properly. So, it's all glory to Him. I just couldn't be more thankful or humbled.
Here's to fighting to the finish this school year. And Here's to God--ruler and conductor of all, who decides when it is time to build up his faithful ones who are world-weary and emotionally on the fritz. I am very grateful that time for me is now.
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