Bogged Down

I'm feeling a little bogged down these days. I try not to complain too much about school but I'm really feeling punished by my workload. I currently have 220 students that regularly attend my class. That's not all the students that are actually listed on my roster. It makes for a pretty rough week. Last year was a little bit of a shock because I had right at about 200 students. My last year teaching in TX, I only had 99. Of the 200 students I had last year, only about 80% came to class regularly so that dropped me down to more like 160. Right now, 220 actually come to my class. It some respects, I hope that they don't stop coming. I don't want any of my students to fail but there are days when I will have 5+ students missing for a class and it's sort of a relief. It's also made the head coaching position a little more crazy because I have so much more to deal with because I do have that responsibility, as well. That's why, in TX, head coaches have a reduced class load. I could only dream of that happening for me here. In fact, we're probably going to hire another Spanish teacher for our school and they're not necessarily going to reduce the amount of students I have. The administration says that we should just be patient because we're going to get another teacher but the counselors have said that they will fill that person's classes first with all the students who wanted Spanish this year and didn't get it. If it's going to be like this again next year, I'm likely to go teach in Pennsylvania. I hear the grass is greener there.

How you doin?

This is a phrase that Irene and I found very comical when we first moved to DE. It's just so stereotypical. It brings thoughts of Joey from "Friends" with his smooth smile and even smoother pick-up line, "How you doin?" Anyway, in poking fun of it, it has now become a regular part of my vocabulary but lately I really have to think about it when someone asks. Things haven't been great here and when someone asks me how I'm doing I really think to myself, "How am I doing?" My most common response right now has become, "I'm surving another day." And if further inquiry ensues I simply say, "I'm taking one breath at a time." More and more I'm concentrating on today because it's the only thing I can control. Maybe that's the lesson God's trying to teach me right now. Maybe I've been looking so far down the road that I haven't been concentrating enough on today. Well, I don't even want to think about tomorrow because the possibilities of what could happen tomorrow are too overwhelming. I'm just surviving today. At times, I'm even stopping to make sure I'm actually breathing and take a second to intentionally breathe. So far, today is fine and tomorrow is an eternity away!