The past two weeks have been intense. I've attended a TFA- or teaching-related meeting almost every day after school. The district replaced our principal with someone who has never worked in the building before. My formal evaluation was rescheduled twice, each time at the last minute. (It's currently set for next Tuesday, but who knows what might come up between now and then?) The semester officially ended last week, so I've been dealing with mountains of finals, make-up work, and grading.  Central office has been on my department's back about our failure rates, despite our best attempts to show the correlation between failure rate and absenteeism, over which we have very little control. To top it all off, the new principal informed me yesterday that I'll be teaching three preps next semesterâincluding Geometry, which I haven't touched since the seventh grade.
It sounds overwhelming. It should feel overwhelming. But God has graciously been reminding me of two verses every day: Romans 8:28 ("We know that for those who love God all things work together for good") and Philippians 4:6-7 ("Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything ... let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"). Perhaps in the craziness of it all, things are working together for good. Of course, I pray that I'll be able to teach my new students well, even transformatively wellâbut if nothing else, I know that I will have to rely on His strength alone to carry me through this next semester, and that His power will be made perfect in my weakness. That gives me peace.
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On a somewhat tangential note, I just submitted my first DonorsChoose project for review. If it gets approved and fully funded, then each of my students will get a beautiful new whiteboard with blank space on one side and a coordinate plane on the other. I'm actually really really excited about the prospect. Oh, the simple joys of teaching.