October was a long month

I realized recently that leaving the previous post un-updated suggests a lot worse than I have actually been feeling. Don't get me wrong - the days around the last post were rough, mainly because I was just too frustrated to even think about lesson planning. Unfortunately, the chaos at school coincided with the last week of the quarter as well as the week my students were taking a math Benchmark Exam. Needless to say, my kids probably could have done a lot better on that exam if this gang rape case had not turned our school upside down. I'm surprised that through it all I still managed to dress up for Halloween on Friday. My kids had been telling me I look like Michael Phelps, so I wore a swimsuit, flip flops, goggles, and a homemade Olympic medal, which was fun. I had just enough energy to go out with friends to San Francisco that night, but stayed in on Halloween from exhaustion. I think I just took a day off from life that day - lounging and sleeping a lot.

The weeks since then have been a lot better. After a particularly emotional meeting with my TFA advisor, she paid me some special attention and visited my worst class twice in one week to give feedback on how to improve. I think it helped a lot, and at the very least, I can leave school happy instead of pissed off at my 7th period Algebra students. Also, in the week after Halloween, the student body organized a community event to stand up against violence; it was really great, with music and tons of student involvement. During the week, too, the kids passed out strips of blue cloth for everyone to wear during and after school as a reminder that our student body DOES care about horrible things like this that happen. In all I think the most destructive thing that came from the homecoming chaos was that the media made it seem like none of the Richmond High students cared or felt like this was anything out of the ordinary.

I think everything is as back to normal as possible now, although I am way behind on grading and am brainstorming new ways to give credit so I don't drown in all these papers. As it is, my roommate and I are equally contributing to a mess of an apartment - paper and teacher supplies everywhere. On the bright side, I've heard that this November/December stretch is not nearly as awful as the October month was, so things are looking up. Plus, I've been asked to help out on the soccer team (girls JV I think...) for one day a week, so I am pumped for that.

In all, things have actually not been that bad - my finances seem more in order than ever before, I'm staying in shape with soccer and actually pretty healthy food (I never eat fast food), and I have a pretty good relationship with my students. It's just discouraging and hard to swallow when I hear from multiple sources that success is rarely found during your first year of teaching when you teach in a place like Richmond. There's always more work to be done, so right now, I'm just having trouble knowing when to stop and be satisfied.

And also I need a vacation. I'm already committed to a Mt. Bachelor ski trip in January, and am organizing a Lake Tahoe trip in February. The thoughts of skiing will get me through the rest of 2009 :)