Boundaries.

Today I saw a 5 minute quiz on the msn homepage that was titled, "are you stressed?" I considered taking it but decided I didn't have time. Which leads me to believe that the population sample this quiz is reaching is not the TRULY stressed folks; us folks are much too busy to take a 5 minute quiz to discover if we are overextended!


Secret's out. Katie has sold her soul to the TFA machine. I have never known this kind of stress before. By "this kind" I mean the kind of stress that is work-related. That physically breaks you down until sleep stalks you and pounces any time you are still and warm. (Which for me is often, considering that 7/8 of my day is spent sitting in classrooms that have no AC) We ride good old fashioned yellow buses to and from school... even stickly vinyl seats don't stop my little head from dropping to the seat in front of me.

Turns out being a teacher means living a rather grueling lifestyle. Especially if you do it excellently. That is the TFA way. And now that is my way. As each passes I am becoming more invested in my students. I will only have them for 2 1/2 more weeks. While I am teaching really dry material (analyzing informational texts), I have come to enjoy my time interacting with the kids.

I am forcing myself to type this post. I think that I need to learn how to make time for things like this and phone calls and visits home. Honestly, now that I am invested I feel as though every minute of my day is really precious. It is tempting to spend all those minutes planning for classes. I recognize the need for boundaries. So this is me trying to make them. Cheers!