The past few crazy days!

Wow have the past few days been busy. I feel like a lot has happened. The weekends always seem to fly by and as long as school days are they tend to be so full that I don't even realize how much I've done.

Monday I started my first graduate class at St. John Fisher College. I'm going to get my Masters in math education. The class I'm taking right now is called Inquiry in the Classroom. As much as that sounds like a vague and convoluted name for a class it is exactly what we are doing and talking about. Our first task was to get into groups of 3 or 4, go outside and using a bunch of seemingly random tools (meter stick, 16 ft of string, protractor, measuring tape, cup, straw, dry erase marker, and mirror) find the height of the steeple on top of one of the buildings on campus. They gave us an hour to find an answer and then we regrouped and shared how we found our answers with the rest of the class. It was nice to be given no real direction and "fend for ourselves". Later in the class we worked with other groups and made predictions and tested them in a lab about density, volume, and displacement of items in water. So far the course seems to be very student centered. It is a good reminder of how to work with students and help them to problem solve and think for themselves. And on a totally random note, 2 of the girls in my class (of maybe 20 people total) did gymnastics with me during high school... talk about a small world!

Not getting done with class until 9pm makes it nearly impossible to have a 10 o'clock bedtime. Once I got home I called my parents to ask a few simple questions which lead to an hour long discussion about work at school and at Mathnasium as well as my grad class. My mom is working in a kindergarten class this school year so it was fun to hear her talk about her kids and all of the activities she is doing in the classroom. I ended up venting about my frustrations at Mathnasium. The short version of that situation is that I have no real job description but am given work that needs to get done and basically told that it's my job. I'm slowly figuring out what I need to do to make the situation less stressful for me and yet still have a positive working relationship with my bosses. Needless to say after talking with my mom about the situation I was even more frustrated and stressed out about everything. I eventually made it to bed and was able to get a good nights sleep, but it was a very long Monday.

Tuesday was a long day of school/work. I'm slowly adjusting to running on between 6 and 7 hours of sleep a night. My body isn't thrilled about it and working 12 hour days doesn't help, but that will be ending soon. There are only 2 correlations I've truly found with my headaches. 1- If I get less sleep, my head hurts more. 2- If the weather is changing (mainly the pressure, ie a thunderstorm rolling through) my head hurts more. So not getting a lot of sleep plus weird Rochester weather has put me in slightly more pain the past few days, but that's life!

School has been going really well so far. I averaged 10 kids the first few days of school and Tuesday I had almost 30. It's been great seeing students again from last year. The math is mainly review for kids but some of them can't remember the basics. It's been nice to actually teach concepts and know students are understanding what they are working on. Once it gets busier this is harder to see, at least on a daily basis. On an even more positive note they have found someone to help me out during the day. This means that starting on Monday there will be 2 of us there for the lunch periods which are always busiest. I will work from 7:30-12:30 each day. While it is a cut in hours it will save my sanity by not leaving me alone with 15-20 kids who all need my help at the same time and by giving me a break each day between jobs. I'm excited to meet my new coworker on Monday and to see how it goes. Really, I'm just glad that the kids have somewhere to go during the day to get the help they need and that I get to teach algebra through pre-calc and AP stats!!

After work last night I was able to vent to a friend and get some good ideas about how to handle the situation at Mathnasium. It was good to just talk openly about the stresses in my life (work, headaches, moving etc.). I don't open up easily but I'm trying to work on that. Every once in a while I get pushed enough to let most of my thoughts out and I feel much healthier after those times. Last night was a reminder of that and it pushed me to face some of the things that are easier to keep buried deep inside my head and heart.

Today was a typical day, work at school and then work at Mathnasium. I'm really trying not to let me stress and frustration about things happening at work to impact my time with the students while I'm there. I think I've done a good job separating them so far, but I need to find a way to simplify what is happening there before the kids suffer.

The next few days should be pretty normal. I'm hoping to have friends over for a meal this weekend sometime and to hear from the place where I filled out an application for an apartment sometime soon. If I'm lucky I might even have a few hours to relax!