"Hey miss - can i have your number?"

So it is currently 10:45 on Friday night and what am I doing? trying to keep my eyes open long enough to update this and then pass out.

I just finished my first week teaching and oh.em.gee. I have never been more exhausted. I pulled my first all nighter in my life (yes, four years of college and I was always able to sleep). I have had a total of 12 hours of sleep since monday night. Despite my exhaustion I have never had a more exciting week.

In short:

I am the proud math teacher of fourteen 14yr olds. My kids are great. Of course we always have a few difficulties that require me to pull out the "teacher face" and they LOOOOVE to chat when they aren't supposed to but overall they are a great bunch. On the first day I had them fill out surveys about themselves and I got some awesome insight about these kids. In response to "Tell me something interesting" I got everything from students telling me they are good kids but get mad easily to their goals about graduating from high school and becoming professional athletes.

On Tuesday I actually gave them the opportunity to write me questions. I told them they could write me anything they wanted....oh my did that get interesting. Almost every note card included something about "Do you have a boyfriend" or "Do you have a crush on one of the other teachers" or "What's your number." Oh 14yr olds and their obsession with dating. I did have a touching question when a girl asked "Do you think you will be able to pass us to eighth grade?" YES I WILL.

While there were some fantastic moments of getting to know these kids there were also many harsh realities we all faced in our classrooms. I found a student struggled on my word problems not because of math skills but because he reads on a third grade level. I found a girl who has passed through the education system to 7th grade without knowledge of how multiplication and division work. I have colleagues with pregnant 14 year olds. It is something you can read about but when facing in reality is completely astounding.

I imagined I would be working hard these few weeks and next two years but the reality of actually doing it is taking a toll on me. My goal for the weekend is to refocus for next week so I can maintain proper sleep patterns and in turn be more prepared to deliver the lessons my kids deserve. I will try to update with more anecdotes from my school days but unfortunately this ranks far below the millions of hours of lesson planning and prep I have to focus on.

I apologize if this isn't coherent but I believe you understand why.