Week two as a first year teacher is complete! Except I have some papers to finish grading and a few emails to get out. 
I have some students and a few parents to notify about the impact they are having on their sons and daughters…and it is showing in the classroom.
By impact, I mean positive and negative. Parents are so powerful. Mothers and Fathers are so powerful. The impact of, “I am so proud of who you are.” The impact of, “You are a whore.” I can see what phrase the students heard, just hours ago at home, by simply looking into their eyes as they enter Rm 1501. My students know they aren’t always great kids, but that doesn’t excuse certain phrases that come out of mom’s and dad’s mouth.
Two school weeks in and I have had many moments where I just want to drop the curriculum plan for the day and just walk around and hug these sophomores, juniors, and seniors to let them know how loved they are. How important they are.
I spent all morning reading through and grading papers that I asked my students in Rm 1501 to write. I asked them to write anything they learned this week and how it applied to their life. This pic is just one fun example of one paragraph I found on the back of a student’s paper. 
I wish you could read them all…you would never be the same.
I laughed as I read some really funny comments. I was inspired as I read about hopes and dreams and biblical understanding. I cried when I read some things. I cried hard. The home is supposed to be the safest place on earth for a child. I wish I could promise all of my students, in Rm 1501, that all their homes are a safe haven to be themselves and to be free. That is a promise I can’t keep and they know it. So, the only thing I can do, is make Rm 1501 the safest place on earth. A foretaste of Heaven.
My students know I mean that. Some are still a little nervous, but they are learning to trust that this is going to be a great year in Rm 1501…no matter what life brings their way…they know how real it is going to be and that they can safely contribute to that real-ness.
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I have so taken my teachers and my kid’s teachers for granted. I can’t believe how hard the work is. I know every job has a hard factor to it. But teaching…wow…I had no idea. I have never been so tired.
As a new teacher, I am firmly aware of what teachers get paid. I also know that teachers don’t do what they do for a money reward.
I am so grateful for what happens on the campus at Joy Christian School, but even more so in Rm 1501. I am full. I am content. I am accepted. We laugh at each other in such a positive and safe way. We wrestle with questions that I have never dealt with in any other form of 23 years of ministry work. My feet, back, vocal chords, mental, and emotional assets have never been so tired.
But I am full.
I wish you could be a teacher for just two weeks.
I am so excited for Monday.