The Dog Days of August

The first few weeks of this school year have been extremely difficult and challenging for me. I had grown accustomed to what a 1st grader can do at the end of the year and had somehow forgotten what a 1st grader at the beginning of the year can and can't do. The frustrations seemed to multiply and frustrations were festering in my mind. I felt like I had reached rock bottom of teaching. I shared some of these feelings with someone and they suggested that I go back and look at some of my blogs from the beginning of last year. I did that and memories that had faded came back in vivid color. I saw Sonny Liston helplessly looking up at the menacing Muhammad Ali and thought to myself, now I remember. That gave me some relief to know that I had felt this way before but it didn't ease my frustrations.

The frustrations came to a culmination yesterday. It was a day where it seemed that I was set up to fail. We left our apartment and headed to school. It was a difficult day in the classroom as I continued to strain to teach these young children how things are done in my classroom. There was an after school faculty meeting. Then there was an Open House that went longer than expected. We finally arrived back at our apartment 15 1/2 hours after we had first set out, well after my bed time. I seemingly had every right to complain and dwell on my frustrations but that's not how things turned out. Thanks to many small prayers throughout the day and my wife constantly badgering me to see the good in things, I made it home in one piece. Then, unexpectedly, God abundantly blessed me today. He gave me the best day I've had this year with my students. He gave me energy to teach and not once did I feel tired from the previous day. I finally felt like I could see progress in my students. It's as if he spent the last few weeks humbling me in and out of the classroom showing me all of my flaws and failures until I was finally ready to accept that I need to rely on him to meet my every need.