October. Was. The. Longest. Month. Ever.
I genuinely thought that it would never end. I cannot tell you how many times I just sat up frustrated by a seemingly never-ending list of things that needed to get done. It felt like I would finish something just in time to have three or four more deadlines pop up. October was a lot. I am not sad that it is over.
The crazy part is that I do not remember October being this difficult last year. My high-stress points last year were the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the fall semester and the entire month leading up to the fifth grade science STAAR. I think this officially means that I have completed the fun honeymoon phase of teaching and I am starting to feel the normal cycles of teaching. I do hope that October is not always this unpleasant though.
I wish that I could speak more about the struggles but everything now feels like one big fog. The minute that November started, everything started to feel better. I can almost guarantee that a lot of that has to do with my birthday happening very early in the month, but even my students seemed a bit more relaxed.
I have put up quite a few strings lights around my classroom so that I can leave the fluorescent lights off most of the time. I think it makes it easier to keep the room calm and it seems as though my students are a bit more focused during the day with this new lighting. I hope that this is not just because it is a change and in a few weeks things will unravel again because I really enjoy this new ambiance as well.
There are a lot of things that I am excited for as the semester starts to wind down. My classes will finally start to wrap up this semester, meaning that I will be that much closer to a Master's Degree. The holidays are also a wonderful time to reflect and celebrate. I will get to see my family more often. Not to mention all of the wonderful foods that come with this time of year. With a year of being a vegetarian under my belt, I am excited to try out some new things to make our traditional dinners a bit more adventurous.
I am officially committing to reaching out to more people before the end of the year. I know that I have not great at staying in touch recently (since summer really) and that is an important form of self-care. This is going to be a time for me to create and/or restore habits of communication. Please feel free to reach out and keep me accountable to this commitment!
Yay for good times in November and beyond!
I genuinely thought that it would never end. I cannot tell you how many times I just sat up frustrated by a seemingly never-ending list of things that needed to get done. It felt like I would finish something just in time to have three or four more deadlines pop up. October was a lot. I am not sad that it is over.
The crazy part is that I do not remember October being this difficult last year. My high-stress points last year were the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the fall semester and the entire month leading up to the fifth grade science STAAR. I think this officially means that I have completed the fun honeymoon phase of teaching and I am starting to feel the normal cycles of teaching. I do hope that October is not always this unpleasant though.
I wish that I could speak more about the struggles but everything now feels like one big fog. The minute that November started, everything started to feel better. I can almost guarantee that a lot of that has to do with my birthday happening very early in the month, but even my students seemed a bit more relaxed.
I have put up quite a few strings lights around my classroom so that I can leave the fluorescent lights off most of the time. I think it makes it easier to keep the room calm and it seems as though my students are a bit more focused during the day with this new lighting. I hope that this is not just because it is a change and in a few weeks things will unravel again because I really enjoy this new ambiance as well.
There are a lot of things that I am excited for as the semester starts to wind down. My classes will finally start to wrap up this semester, meaning that I will be that much closer to a Master's Degree. The holidays are also a wonderful time to reflect and celebrate. I will get to see my family more often. Not to mention all of the wonderful foods that come with this time of year. With a year of being a vegetarian under my belt, I am excited to try out some new things to make our traditional dinners a bit more adventurous.
I am officially committing to reaching out to more people before the end of the year. I know that I have not great at staying in touch recently (since summer really) and that is an important form of self-care. This is going to be a time for me to create and/or restore habits of communication. Please feel free to reach out and keep me accountable to this commitment!
Yay for good times in November and beyond!
