three weeks into the school year… good grief it is already flying by. every friday i come home and am in shock at the fact that another week has passed.
this week, i conquered: my first homework assistance, 7 hours spent at LMU, my first meeting with the running team, my vision for the reading intervention program, 5 chapters of Catcher in the Rye, 122 Vocabulary quizzes (almost 2/3 of which were 100s!), a 14 hour work day, my first ever parent night, my first attempt at translating, and my first 30 minute run in over a month. success.
i’m finally getting in the swing of things. i’m learning to manage my time better and get more sleep at night. i’m getting use to waking up at 5 in the morning. i’m getting better at lesson planning and can crank them out pretty quickly now. i’m learning to talk jesus on a more constant basis throughout the day. my classroom management is improving. i’m learning how to differentiate between my higher level and lower level students. it’s all just starting to come together and i don’t quite feel like i’m going to lose my mind anymore.
victories of the week:
1. my 3rd and 4th period classes both had 100% of students make a 100 on their very first vocabulary quiz.
2. my 5th period, which can sometimes be my most challenging, literally BEGGED me to let them keep reading when i tried to move on to the second part of the lesson. “Miss, can we pleeeeease just spend the rest of class reading Catcher in the Rye??” blahahahah I GOT YOU YOU LITTLE TENTH GRADERS. YOU LIKE TO READ YOU LIKE TO READ
3. meeting with the students who want to do the running team with me. it’s going to be a small group, which is awesome, because that means we’ll be able to do more. we’re running a 10k in december and a half-marathon in february. they’re so excite.
4. meeting all the parents at back to school night and seeing how incredibly supportive they are of their children.
5. community group with our new church here. these people love jesus so so much and our time with them on tuesdays is incredible. we just study the word and spend time in prayer and it is SO encouraging and God does crazy things there.
6 . eating at the famous Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood. THEY HAVE GRITS. praise the lord. haven’t been able to find those anywhere else in cali yet. not even at IHOP. how absurd.
7. CAROLINA BEATING GEORGIA.
8. getting cable so we can watch the basketball games.
9. the time warner cable man asking brandon if he was from alabama.
10. having my students write personal narratives about a significant event that impacted their lives.
on that note… the narratives were incredible. and heartbreaking. the things my students have been through would blow your mind. after one of my classes left, i literally had to lock my classroom door during lunch so i could cry. it was so overwhelming. i left school that day feeling really defeated. not only are my kids so far behind academically, but they have so much going on in their lives. i have no idea where to start. how do i give them the help they need? how do i get them to college when they’re reading at a 4th grade level? how do i get them to care about school when they have things in their life that make it difficult to even make it through the day?
thank god, the day all this happened was the same day we had community group with our church. we’re studying colossians, and were in the first chapter. there’s a verse that talks about how Jesus reconciles everything to Himself. there’s also a verse that says “In Him all things hold together.” He completely convicted me and comforted me all at once. He showed me that i can not save these kids – but that HE CAN. He has the power to reconcile ALL THINGs. He has the power to redeem.
another thing thats amazing, something that pastor tim said sunday, is that we are to have a redemptive effect on the world around us. so not only does Christ redeem us and others, but he wants us to be a part of seeing others come to know him. He has blessed us with the favor of being a part of his work. and so it hurts to see my kids go through the things they do BUT – that is why He called me here.
There’s a verse in 2 Corinthians where Paul says, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for you.” i wrote that on a post it and stuck it to my desk this week. that’s the attitude i want to have with my students. to pour myself out daily knowing that it’s not just so they can make good grades, but so they might see Jesus and experience rescue from all the tragedy that has happened in their young lives.
Last bit of randomness for this post, and then i’m out. we watched the movied “Stand and Deliver” last night. It’s about Jamie Escalante, a teacher in LA who led an underachieving class of juniors to have 100% pass rate on the AP calculus exam. cool thing is, the school where he taught is right down the street from my school. if my kids hadn’t chosen to come to our charter, they’d be attending Garfield. so in the movie, there are shots all around the streets where i go to work every day. 
you should watch it if you get a chance. it’s really good.
