Yesterday? Don't ask. Today? Much better.

      Yesterday was the roughest day of school yet.  I had to reteach synthetic division because there was some miscommunication and misinterpretation last Thursday.  The kids weren't happy and I could tell that some of them just don't like me at all.  My mentor teacher even pointed out that she could sense a mutiny brewing.  That was less comforting.  When I asked her for suggestions of what I could do to avoid a catastrophe she had nothing.  It wasn't that she didn't have suggestions.  It was that she didn't think they would work.  I left school feeling discouraged and very low in spirits.  I felt like a failure in every sense of the word.  I went up to Anna's for a little therapy session with Ben and Jerry's and Edy's.  We both vented about our days and encouraged each other and then changed the topic to happier things.  I decided to pray a little harder that night about being a better teacher.
      Sometimes, the answers to our prayers is "No" but this time the answer was "Yes".  Things still were far from perfect but there was much less tension in the classroom.  I even felt like the kids that didn't like me yesterday were on my side today.  The pace of the lesson was much slower than I am used to, but it was more of the pace that they are used to and more comfortable with.  So after a fairly successful first period, I was able to breathe easy.  We had a school-wide field trip to the GWU Women's basketball game.  The game was a nice break.  It made me miss the Marriot Center and Jimmer-mania a little bit but I enjoyed myself.  From that field trip we went back to school and reported to fourth period for which we went on another field trip to Georgetown and measured the height of the Old Stone House, a historical building in the middle of Georgetown.  We walked to and from Georgetown in the rain but I didn't mind.  It was fun to be outside and it gave me time to bond with the students and with my mentor teacher.
      I came home from school and went to my seminar meeting.  We all shared our successes and our concerns and gave each other advice.  It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one that was having hard days.  From the seminar I went home and started working again.  I wrote a quiz and graded some papers while I watched a movie.  I got a lot of phone calls from home which were greatly appreciated.  It's nice to know that I'm not forgotten.  Plus talking with loved ones just makes the distance between us seem so much smaller. Ten more weeks and I'll be home!