Two Things

Now I know that I'm behind here.  I whomp.  But let it be known that it is 9:45 P.M. and I am just getting ready to leave school for the day.  After the sickness that ravaged my body and left me to die, I was so far behind in lesson planning and grading that I needed to stay super late to catch back up.  Man I never want to do this again.  But I will get some new blogs up and ready after I myself am up and ready.  I'm working on it!

Anyhow...

Thing 1: This teaching thing is like a rollercoaster.  It's up and down and around and through a loop.  Some days I'm high and excited and feel like nothing can go wrong.  Other days the students act like little idiots and I fear for the future of the United States.  Oftentimes I'm wondering whether I got into the right profession.  Thus far I've been giving it an open mind, and I will continue to do so.  I mean, we're almost halfway through the semester already and I haven't ripped all my hair out yet, so something must be going right.  Things would certainly be a lot easier if it weren't for this nonsense sickness, but we're getting back! 

Teaching is tough.  I need to remind myself all the time that I can do it.  I've been getting down on myself, feeling like a failure.  I'm giving the same lectures every day about bringing a pencil and being prepared, and it doesn't matter.  Students will seemingly do anything to get out of doing any real work or thinking.  It's so disheartening.  And I don't know what difference I am making, or I can make.  I've gotten some blunt talk.  I can succeed if I let myself.  Of course it's hard...

Thing 2: I had a thought today.  I thought about a void.  I imagined that I had the dirt needed to fill that hole.  But then I remembered that it had all blown away.  Tough.