Well it’s June 12 and I am currently riding back to Oxford with two other first years teaching in Greenville – Carmelle and Laura. The World Cup is on the radio and US just tied the game near the end of the first half. Taking a two and a half hour drive to get fingerprinted may not be the ideal way to spend a Saturday but it’s been nice to reflect on the past week and the beginning of my teaching career. I remember sitting in church last week with Phil, Josh and his wife Jen and thinking…man I really need to get through this next week. Coming down here was a huge gamble. I left all my family, all my college friends, my girlfriend and everything I was familiar with to start a two year stint teaching middle school math in the Mississippi delta. Don’t get me wrong…I absolutely love working with what most people classify ‘at-risk youth’ but teaching them? That’s a whole different animal…or at least I thought. This week I taught a handful of lessons and learned a great deal about teaching.
The first week went better than I could have ever imagined sitting in the pew of church the previous Sunday. Then again that’s just how God works. When we look at disappointments, stresses and uncertainties from a human perspective we slip away from completely trusting God. In reality though God is constantly in control of everything and what should we fear? I was focused on just surviving the week but I was honored to be voted ‘First Year Teacher of the Week’. I was confident during my lessons that all 27 kids were engaged and actually learning. In addition I’m continuing to realize how blessed I am to have Hunter, Anna and Connor at my disposal to pick their brain and throw ideas off of. Undoubtedly there will be disappointments, fights, times where kids want to do anything besides math. I have a whole laundry list of things to work on for summer school to become a better teacher. This week though I can reflect on how much God has blessed me and it seems like my gamble coming down here was just one more way for God to show off how deep His love is.
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