Ciao

The hardest 5 weeks of my life are now over. In 6 weeks I will begin the hardest 2 years of my life. Though the past 5 weeks have been hard, I have grown so much as a teacher and as a person. I have been put in situations where I felt like I could not succeed and seen myself succeed. I can look back on lesson plans I wrote the first week and see how much better my lesson plans were at the end of institute. I have seen my patience be tested and strengthened when dealing with 21 high school seniors in summer school, 6 of which consistently gave me trouble. I have seen my faith grow when I could do nothing but say "God help me" and trusting that everything would work out. My confidence in the classroom has gotten better as well especially with my assertiveness in discipline. I have seen that I can get the students to be silent and paying attention. I know I must have this from Day 1. I know I must really work on a lot of things before I begin teaching in 6 weeks but I know that it is possible to get everything done and I have faith that it will.

Last night I moved out of the dorms as fast as possible and moved into my new place in Houston. I have a friend from church who owns a 3 bedroom townhouse that is about 15 minutes from my school and he is letting me stay with him. It was really nice to not have to worry about finding a place to live while going through institute. I dont know if I could have handled even a little more stress. BUT I dont have any furniture for my room, not even a bed. So I am thinking about going to IKEA to look for a desk, dresser and/or shelves, and a bed frame. I dont know how I am going to get it back to my place unless somehow all the boxes or even one of the boxes fits in my car. I am sure I can find someone who has a truck.

This past week I was thinking about stuff and realized that I really miss being in Cincinnati. I miss all of my friends from Cincinnati, University Christian Church, and of course my family. Its hard not always having someone to call and do something with. I am sure it will come soon enough.

This is the last post that will have a rhyming title. I think "Ciao" is appropriate though for this one because I am saying goodbye to TFA Houston Institute and my home for 5 weeks, Moody Towers. Good riddance.

Peace,
MO