sometimes, it's bigger than you alone.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. ---Frederick Douglass

Wow. The past two weeks have been a crazy, surreal blur. I would be lying if I said that I hadn't broken down in tears. Twice. Once was after a lesson completely tanked, and my CT and I sat down to talk about it. The other caught me completely by surprise. I was observed on Friday and everything went well. I sat down with my supervisor after I was observed and I had tears in my eyes.

I couldn't believe how much of an adjustment this was for me. I think thats why I became overwhelmed. Teaching all day is like running a marathon full of peaks and valleys. You work really hard and sometimes things go really well. And other times, things flop.

I have a wonderful car-pooling mate to school every day. As we were driving home on Friday, she made a very keen observation about teaching, and that is that teaching is often so much bigger than yourself. It's no wonder that there are teachers who burn out so easily. Don't get me wrong. I am not planning on changing my career path. It's just a matter of adjusting to a new schedule, a new lifestyle, and new commitments.

For as stressed out as I have been the past couple of weeks, I am so incredibly happy. I'm now in a situation where I can create lesson plans that are my own. I've planned two lessons with The Office in them. My CT is a great man who offers great feedback and is slow to impatience. I totally understand why we were put together because of the balance we strike with each other. It's a lot of work, but so far, it has been worth it.