My Kids are Everything

This week at the Edge Academy showed the “roller coaster-esque” ride a teacher may take on any given week. With personal problems going on at home and at school, I was forced to grapple with creating a positive balance of my life and the lives of my students – putting them before myself. I could not let myself be distracted with what was going on with my friends and residents, but rather I had to focus on my student’s learning.

Monday started off with a train wreck. My car, the only car that Lexi and I have between the two of us was without a key, this it would not start. This was car number one. The car that I was able to borrow from my friend sounded like a wrench had been thrown into the engine, so Lexi and I decided to keep searching. This was car number two. Finally, Lexi was able to get aholf of her boyfriend and his car, so we were off to the school – 20 minutes later than we normally leave. Now this would still give us time to arrive before our kids, but our prep time would be limited. To make things worse, MBD, our supervisor, would be arriving to do an evaluation. Of course all of our cars would fail on this day. Some things turned around and the lesson went well – my kids were actually attentive and seemed eager to be in class. They definitely ate their Wheaties!

Wednesday was a hard day. By this time in the week, I was attempting to deal with triumph and tragedy. I had two residents taken to the hospital, both suffering from ailments due to their diabetes. 300 miles away, my mom sat in a hospital bed, awaiting word of why this was the fourth time in 5 months she had spent a week in the hospital. Tuesday brought the demise of my six month relationship with a girl I thought could be “the one”. Last but certainly not least, my assignments were slipping and my grades were showing it. I was stressed. I did not want to go to school. I did not want to drive 45 minutes, get disrespected by my co-teachers, fight with students to pay attention, and then drive home 45 minutes, just to have to sit through almost 7 hours of straight classes. Than I thought to myself, what if my teachers had done that to me as a kid. What if, when they were having a bad day, they didn’t come to school. I would be left behind. I would feel neglected. I would feel like they didn’t want to  be there. I had to go in. I had no choice. My kids depended on me.