Semester Challenges

This semester is one of the most challenging I've had, but it is also one of the most interesting.

I am teaching Basic Grammar, and I feel my inexperience like a straight-jacket around me. I want to do a good job, but I am so afraid I will not do a good job. The strange part of it is that at the end of the lesson, I do not want to quit. I want to learn to do better. I love teaching, I just don't feel confident about my teaching.

Along with teaching grammar, I am taking a class for which I must tutor students in the Writing Center. I enjoy writing, as you can see from the fact that I have a blog. Again, however, I do not have confidence in my ability to tutor writing. There are many things that you learn as you go through grade school, high school, and college, but these things get stored away. When you must explain something to a student or client, the knowledge you learned is not always easily accessible. You know what looks right, but it is hard to explain why it looks right.

The most challenging part of this semester is my Statistics class. I think I must know how my students feel. I have been thrown into a foreign language and I have no idea what my teacher is saying. Besides that, it is a three hour evening class, on a day when I get up at 5:30 in the morning. By the time I get to class, I am exhausted and can hardly pay attention to what is being said.

It looks like a pretty daunting semester, and if I focus too hard on all the difficulties, I will cry. I am reminded as I write this, however, of some promises.

"With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matt. 19:26

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9