My life has been consumed by graduate school applications for about the last 8 weeks of my life - pretty much since the week before Thanksgiving - but particularly during the last 2 weeks. I did some quick mental estimations yesterday about how much time I had spent working on applications and essays, and just during the last 2 weeks alone, my total was around 150 hours. If you include the previous 6 weeks, I bet it comes in closer to 300 hours. 300 hours of drafting, revising, editing, brainstorming, researching, reading, and studying graduate school applications. It's been unreal, and with only one more school left, I feel like I've had an enormous burden taken off my shoulders. I'll keep you updated on the results when I get any.
The week before Christmas, I had something happen I never would have expected. I had a couple students who gave me Christmas gifts/cards, and I was really touched by their thoughtfulness. I mean, it's one thing when you get a gift that was really well wrapped up, and obviously a product of their parent being thoughtful. But, to get a card that was hand drawn, decorated, and written like what I have posted below - I about cried. I might feel like strangling the majority of my students on a daily basis, and question the value of my teaching them and if I'm actually getting through to them, but then when something like this happens - it's validation.
Stay tuned for amazing posts to update you on the beautiful happenings of my school. To give you a preview, it's like a slowly sinking ship where everyone who possibly can abandon the ship is doing so, and those of us who are constrained to stick to our posts are commanded to direct and keep order of the passengers as they're panicking and reeling out of control. And it's such a unique experience that the observers can't manage to look away. Just wait.
2 comments:
Wow. That is so awesome. You're right - completely different for the student to do it on his/ her own. SO happy for you and that you're making that connection with your students!
Jona:
What a priceless treasure . . . that's the reward of being a teacher. I had a little boy take me out on a date once. It was the cutest thing ever. He came and picked me up and opened my door and everything. Of course, we doubled with his parents, and I had to get permission from your father to go . . . but it was a priceless memory!
Hi Amber . ., . we'll have to stop meeting like this . . .
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