The First 2 Weeks of School

I'm not going to have time to do this too often but sometimes it is good to write down your feelings so you don't explode. Right now I'm just overwhelmed by this whole experience. I mean, I really thought that Cornell was tough but it was a cakewalk in comparison to teaching. But let's start from the beginning because that is a good place to start.
First things first, Houston is okay, but I miss my Cornell family and my other family something terrible. Most of the time that I am down here I just feel lonely. I mean I don't have a chance to meet people because I am so busy all of the time. When Rondette and Shanique came to visit me, for the first time I really loved living in this new city. I mean in just a few months my life has completely changed, I have a new apartment, a new car, a new job, in a new city and a brand new headache everyday.
And now the job, yeah so I'm a teacher. I teach 3rd grade reading writing and social studies. I teach at a title 1 school. It is hard. I mean there is no sugarcoating it, teaching is very difficult. I am responsible for 50 children (not all at once) but 50 nonetheless. Most of the time I don't get home until 8:30pm from school. I wake up everyday at 5:30 and I arrive at school at 7:00, that is more than a 13 hour day! I do that everyday. I'm exhausted most of the time and when I'm not exhausted I just feel overwhelmed. When I don't feel overwhelemed, I feel stupid. I have no idea if these kids are getting everything I am trying to teach them because all they seem to want to do is talk to each other and misbehave. Third grade is the grade that they start taking standardized tests, so there is so much pressure for me to make sure that I do everything right.
The first two weeks of school have been filled with yelling and being frustrated. But one thing that I definately learned at Cornell, especially from my friends is to perservere. What doesn't kill me will only make me stronger. Until my next blog....