The state of the union right now (the union being just me) is… busy.
I feel like I’m enjoying life, and I’m liking my student teaching gig, but I also figure my teaching and my classes are taking up about 50 or 55 hours a week of my time. Unfortunately, I should probably be putting in about 60 hours a week in order to keep up.
I’m sure I could put in that kind of time if someone put a gun to my head, but lacking that kind of motivation I’m afraid I’m too lazy to put in more than 125 percent of a normal work week. So, I’m falling a bit behind in some of my CSUS coursework. I’m not horribly behind, I’m just enough behind to feel quite anxious about it while still holding out hope that I can catch up by the end.
Because of the time crunch I’ve stopped posting on my blog. I’ve also stopped going to the gym, and I’ve put on an unknown amount of extra weight. I don’t know how much weight I’ve gained, because I dont want to check. However, my clothes are growing noticeably tighter, and that’s not a good sign. I’m assuming all of these isssues can be fixed this summer.
As busy as I am, I still haven’t completely given up on watching TV. If I could learn to make TV a lower priority than everything else in my life, I’d probably be in better shape and more on top of everything. However, TV time is easier and more mentally unwinding than gym time or blogging time or homework time, so it’s still my default downtime activity.
On the bright side, I really have a great mentor teacher at the middle school where I am student teaching. He is an expert in all the skills where I am somewhat lacking - which is mostly in the art of applying energy and personality to the control of kids. It’s a challenge, but it’s the kind of challenge that is enervating and endlessly interesting in a sometimes frustrating sort of way.
Oh… and he’s really, really organized in the classroom too. As for me… not so much - but I’m getting better.
Also, my mentor teacher is pretty understanding about my work load (between teaching 3 classes as a student teacher and taking 3 evening classes at the university I technically have a total course load of 21 units), and he helps me out a lot with class prep. Actually, right now he is pretty much doing all the class prep - which I feel kind of guilty about even though he has his own sections of the same classes and I’m saving him a lot of up front teaching time. Of course, I’m doing all my own grading etc., I’m just not generating any of the test or handouts yet.
So, that is what I’ve been up to lately. Don’t expect a lot of updates for a while - but rest assured (in case you weren’t resting assured) that I’m basically okay, and looking foward to the big transition next June when I graduate and my time is my own for a few months. After that, I’m going to be looking for a part time teaching job where I can finish learning my craft before I attempt a full teaching load
- because this kind of crazy pace really just isn’t my style.
