Barely Breathing

October 31, 2007
I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for an instant report after my first day of teaching. There's so much to do (even now) that I barely have time to eat. Now I have survived two days and I'm going back for more! I teach over 100 kids every day- divided among 5 different classes, mostly freshmen and all very wound up. They're good kids... they've just been lacking proper guidance and management for the past month.

I feel like I'm in an episode of Quantum Leap where I've been dropped into a potentially dangerous situation, and I have to figure out what happened and fix it real quick before an impending disaster occurs. This MUST be harder that starting fresh at the beginning of a year - trying to figure out where the previous teacher left off, get to know the students and learn all the school's systems as fast as possible. I can barely manage to pull together enough activities for the next day before I hit my mandatory bed time. That's one thing I won't compromise, however, the past couple night have been so riddled with dreams of being unprepared for school and being caught in desperate moments that I wake up in a sweat every couple hours.

I leave before Savannah wakes up and get home just before her bed time. It's making me sad to realize how much less quality time I'll have with her and Kathy. My commute is wonderful, though. I took my bike on BART (our mass-transit train) which dropped me off within a couple miles of the school. From there, I discovered a smooth, scenic hike/bike trail that follows a canal directly to the school. It was so beautiful and refreshing as the sun came up, and I was amazed by the number of people getting out that early to exercise!

Well, that's it for now. I gotta get to my preparations! I'll write in more detail when I can spare the time. I really appreciate the good thoughts from those of you who responded to my last posting. Thank you!