The alarm on my phone goes off at 5:13 a.m. I shut it off, knowing
that another one will sound in seven minutes. The second alarm goes off
at 5:20 a.m. I press snooze without really thinking about it. Another
alarm sounds and I hit snooze again. I don't HAVE to be up right now... And it's Friday, so I can wear jeans anyways. Why
the idea of wearing jeans is synonymous with getting ready in less
time, I can't really explain. Finally, I'm up at 5:38 a.m.
For
the next hour and twenty minutes, I shower and dress, pack my lunch
(tuna, crackers, cheese, carrots w/ ranch, & a granola bar for snack),
eat a bowl of cereal, and head out the door. Oh, I also move Adam's
phone to beside the bed and check that he has an alarm set. He stayed up
late the night before and left it in the living room.
On
the way to work, I listen to K-Love. It takes me around 20 minutes to
get to work in the mornings and I arrive at 7:25. At 7:35, I meet with
several other upper school faculty members for morning prayer. I haven't
been to morning prayer for one reason or another this week, so I make a
point to go this morning. Homeroom begins at 7:55. It's amazing to me how awake and talkative 13-year-olds are before 8 a.m. The students comment that many of
us are wearing the same t-shirt (We wear Spirit Wear every Friday). My
colleague and I get distracted catching up with students, so we skip our
usual devotional and he says a quick prayer over the students' day.
I
teach Algebra 1 during first period today. My lesson feels disjointed. I
find myself frustrated that students need help with an assignment. When
students are almost finished, I realize that I've misread the question
and given them poor directions. They were still able to practice finding
the slope of a line, so I decide not to fix my misreading and try to
move on to the next thing. We finish the lesson a smidge early and play a
game called "Rule" for the last three or four minutes.
I
have second period free and then teach different levels of Geometry
during third and fourth period. My students tell me they don't like
Geometry, but they like my class - I'll take that as a compliment :)
They also like folding and cutting, so I try to trick them into learning as often as
possible. One minute they're cutting up paper and the next minute, they
prove that the interior angles of a triangle have a sum of 180 degrees.
This is one thing I enjoy about teaching Geometry - it's easier to find
hands-on things for my students to do.
I'll stop here
for now because this post is becoming rather lengthy. Why do I tell you
about my day in this much detail? Do you really care what I listen to on
the radio every morning or when my Geometry classes meet on Friday?
Maybe not, but this is normal life for me. This is the day in and day
out. There are days (like Tuesday) when I allow my frustration from
first period to carry into the rest of my day, when I come home questioning my career choice, when I'm emotionally vulnerable because all I can think about is my soul friend's new baby 1,000 miles away... But there are also days
like November 7 that begin with prayer, days when my students recognize
community because we're all wearing the same t-shirt, and when my
frustration from first period is eclipsed by success a couple of periods
later. Days like these are the days worth remembering.
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