Can I Do This?

Or, Can I Do This Well? The Story of a First-Year Teacher

Well, I'm at school right now, I'm sitting at my desk. To the far left is my copy of Aeneas to Augustus ready to teach 10th graders to read real Latin. Next to that is my watch which hurts to wear when I'm typing because I always rest my wrists on the desk. Then comes my red Sigg water bottle which Caleb thinks looks like the fuel tank for a camping stove, which is empty right now. Sitting right beside that is a paper cup, which is also empty except for coffee grounds. Between that paper cup and the keyboard is a mini yellow sticky pad scrawled upon with grading calculations. Beneath my right arm are the Vocabulary Review Tests from 10th grade that are giving me much grief. To the right of that lies a red pen, a roll of white-out tape, a larger yellow sticky pad with my to-do list on it, and a stack of 8th grade Vocabulary Review Tests which are about to give me much grief.

I foolishly decided to give all six sections these gigantic Vocabulary Review Tests on the same day, which means I ended up with about 70 tests to grade all at once. That means that even if each one takes only ten minutes to grade, they take up at least 700 minutes of my time. That equals over eleven hours. And I know I may be astounding you with my mathematical skills, but I definitely did not calculate this beforehand.

That is just one of the many reasons my confidence as a teacher has taken a hit today.