No Work.

No Student-Teaching.

No 80-Hour Work Week.

No Sleepless Nights. 

Just me, the couch, and my TV/Computer.

My life is grand.

For the past 7 weeks, I have been student-teaching during the day and working nights at the hotel. Today, my supervising teacher gave me full responsibility of all her classes - everything from teaching to planning all the lessons and everything in between. It wasn’t that I felt unprepared or incompetent to do what was expected of me, but it was really my own anxiety and the pressure of making sure that I was doing the right thing in every situation that came up. I kept telling myself,I won’t fuck this up - I can’t fuck this up. At the end of the school day, everything went tell and I hadn’t royally fucked up anything. 

I rushed home to change into my work clothes and chugged my third cup of coffee before making it to work right on time. It was unusually busy today; the phone wouldn’t stop ringing and people kept flowing through the lobby like it was Grand Central Station. When I finally had a chance to sit down and eat, the bell rang. Someone was at the Front Desk. Again. My boss so how frustrated I was getting and stayed later to cover the desk while I ate. When I finished, the hustle and bustle had ceased. She and I started talking about how everything was going with me. She’d notice I looked tired, almost worn out, and was genuinely worried that I was overworking myself.

Honestly, I know I have been working myself to death. 80 hours a week is no joke, and yet somehow I have managed to maintain my sanity. Well, sort of. Today it hit me and I just wanted to cry. The exhaustion, lack of sleep, and anxiety had settled in and it was all hitting me today. I held back the tears while talking to my boss and just smiled. Everything would be okay. This semester just needs to end. One semester until graduation. That is all.

Carpe Diem. 

So, my students are reading The Great Gatsby on their own and finishing up next week. I feel like I’ve tried everything under the sun to help them understand the symbolism and themes in the novel. Any suggestions for helping them without completely spoon-feeding them?