School!!!

I keep getting asked if I'm frustrated with teaching yet and seeing as though I've only been doing it for a month I'd love to say no. Today I think I was frustrated. I hope this feeling passes, but I feel overwhelmed with the grading, keeping parents posted, doing units as a team so we all start and end at the same time, working with co-teachers, and breaking through with the students that their actions are meaningful and they are responsible and need to be respectful. There is just so much to do that I feel like I no longer have a life of my own. School is something I deal with 24 hours of the day. I even dream about teaching, no joke. I feel like my life has become school. If I was paid hourly on how much time I spend on school I would be making a whole lot more than I make now.

I miss being a student, but at the same time I don't miss having papers to write and tests to take. Greg is especially stressed right now. He is overwhelmed with all that he is doing and I would be too, if I were him. I think its worse for him because he is such a procrastinator and lived all through high school and most of college not having to work hard or study because academics came easy to him. Now, he is in classes that are outside his comfort zone and he doesn't know what to do about it. He does have a lot on his plate but he, like me sometimes, likes to blame others on why he doesn't get stuff done.

Josh gets his stuff done too but we never hear about his stress until three days later when its over. I guess I just don't notice when he gets his school stuff done.

School is crazy and even though I love some of my students, some of them challenge me more than I'd like to admit.
With that I need to go continue my school life and grade way too many papers.

If students could get their work turned in on time that would be amazing. Someday...someday. I think maybe I need to make a homework challenge for them to entice them on actually getting it done on time.

Oh yes, just one more story. I had a student yell at me yesterday about his grade. He said all through elementary school he was perfect with this grade and now that he came to middle school and since he has me I gave him bad grades and it was all my fault for his bad grades. It seemed as though he had this rage growing in him since last Friday when grades were sent out. I let him finish and told him that I didn't GIVE any grades and that he EARNED the grade he got. I further explained on how I just keep track of their progress-if they turn things in on time then they get the points, if they study for the quiz and do well then they get the points they earned on that, as well. I later explained to the class that they all EARNED their grade and if they were upset with their grade then they had to make sure to turn things in on time and study for tests and quizzes. After school that day the boy came back to my class and apologized. I'm glad he is well-mannered enough to do that.

Well, my life has been quite hectic and I have the place to myself for a couple of hours so I'm going to take advantage of that and hopefully get ALL my grading done!