Update, better late than never
I've been mulling around the idea of ending my time on Live Journal but since I haven't been able to make that decision yet I figured I'd post.
The biggest news is that my second year of teaching is going really well. I have a really nice class which helps, and a year of experience which helps even more. Most of my days are quite pleasant and torment free (unlike last year). I have about 7 more children than I did last year, but way more ability to deal with them. It also helps that they are pretty much the cutest children ever. Classes have their specific personalities. Last year I think overall my kids were smarter... but meaner. This year I have some really low kids but I don't care so much about that. I can make kids smarter... it's much harder to improve personalities.
I'm pretty much smitten with my job. It is so rewarding and fulfilling, even if there is the occasional week that is so dark and depressing I question why I even bother. I have become even more acutely aware of the extreme difficulties that many of my children face. My solution is some seriously tough love. By tough love I mean love that cannot be broken by anything they do, and love that cannot be swayed from punishing by any number of tears.
I hope every year will be like this one. I can really tell that my kids know how much I care, even if I feel like I spend most of my time disciplining them. Of course it's really easy to say all this today. Today was a good day. It was less easy when my child's delinquent father was trying to sneak around the restraining order and custody resolution to kidnap him. And that's just one small example. I mean WFT. What is wrong with some people?
Anyway, I must cut this entry short because it's HP7 time. So here's the super quick summary of everything else (because I do actually have a life outside of work), marriage is great, I miss my family and don't know how much longer I can tolerate living far away from them, we got a new furnace on Monday and will be getting new windows in February, our kittens Beren and Luthien continue to be great children substitutes, and if you haven't seen from facebook I painted my house this summer and became obsessed with baking.
That's all for now folks! Harry Potter awaits!
The biggest news is that my second year of teaching is going really well. I have a really nice class which helps, and a year of experience which helps even more. Most of my days are quite pleasant and torment free (unlike last year). I have about 7 more children than I did last year, but way more ability to deal with them. It also helps that they are pretty much the cutest children ever. Classes have their specific personalities. Last year I think overall my kids were smarter... but meaner. This year I have some really low kids but I don't care so much about that. I can make kids smarter... it's much harder to improve personalities.
I'm pretty much smitten with my job. It is so rewarding and fulfilling, even if there is the occasional week that is so dark and depressing I question why I even bother. I have become even more acutely aware of the extreme difficulties that many of my children face. My solution is some seriously tough love. By tough love I mean love that cannot be broken by anything they do, and love that cannot be swayed from punishing by any number of tears.
I hope every year will be like this one. I can really tell that my kids know how much I care, even if I feel like I spend most of my time disciplining them. Of course it's really easy to say all this today. Today was a good day. It was less easy when my child's delinquent father was trying to sneak around the restraining order and custody resolution to kidnap him. And that's just one small example. I mean WFT. What is wrong with some people?
Anyway, I must cut this entry short because it's HP7 time. So here's the super quick summary of everything else (because I do actually have a life outside of work), marriage is great, I miss my family and don't know how much longer I can tolerate living far away from them, we got a new furnace on Monday and will be getting new windows in February, our kittens Beren and Luthien continue to be great children substitutes, and if you haven't seen from facebook I painted my house this summer and became obsessed with baking.
That's all for now folks! Harry Potter awaits!