Educational Duality

So I've come to realize that this Fellows thing is gonna be a lot harder than I anticipated. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching and I love learning, but doing them both at the same time is pretty hard work.

Teacher by Day
I have the pleasure of teaching Sophomore World Studies at Rock Bridge High School this year and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!! My students are open and receptive to me, they have a hunger to learn, and they are still very impressionable, making classroom managemnet a fairly simple task. I love the fact that I'm teaching a subjet that calls for me to humble myself and ask for help from many directions. Being a "self-centered American" I nver took the time to learn much about anything that seemed of little importance to American society, but having to learn and teach about the world's contributions to the development of society I have come to have a deeper appreciation for and understanding of the world around me.

Student by Night
A person who is serious about their profession is adament about becoming a master of his craft and that is what I am hoping to do through the Fellows Program. I have to admit thought that being a student has never been this hard. Giving and grading homework for my students and recieivenig and completing homework for my professors makes me a very tired young person by the end of the week. But I would not rather be doing anything else in the world though. I thank God for my weariness because he sees me worthy enough to bless me with a mind for success, a love for kids, and a never ending drive to fuse the two together to become the best instructor I can possibly be. I thank God again for all the blessings, and I'll continue to pass my weariness along to him so that he will continuously rejuvenate me tthat I may continueon the path of fufilling the purpose he has for my life.

Too Much Time for Worrying!!!

The firt day of school is quickly approaching but in my eyes it couldn;t come soon enough. I've been stressing myself out over everything.

Do I have everything I need?
Will the students like me?
How well will they take to such a young teacher?
Am I smart enough to do this job?
Are there things that I should be thinking about that I'm neglecting to do?

I know that I studied for four years for this first day of school and I'm gettting tired of planning for it...I just want it to happen. I'm excited and I watn everything to be perfect, but I'm letting my nervousness overshadow my excitement. I've planned lessons and ICEBREAKERS, changed them, re-planned, and changed back to the original idea so many times. After talking to many other Fellows, My mind has been placed a ease. They dont know if they have everthing they need, they dont know if the students will like them, they're young teacehrs just like me, everyone questions their content knowledge, and of course there are thigns they should be doing that they have no idea they should be.
The beauty of all that is that we're not expected to have ALL the answers, we're supposed to be nervous, and in being in a professiont hat strives to cultivate life long learners, we should worry about our content knowledge because we will be growing right along with our students.

I'm excited to see how my first few days of teaching will pan out, and I 'm looking forward to meeting more of my students and embarking on our first years of high school, together. They as students ad me as a teacher...WOW, Me, A TEACHER!!!