Hey There, Mr. Gainfully Employed!

So I got a call today, letting me know I will be working at Einstein Charter School in New Orleans East for the next two years. This is a dream come true, as it is a.) a job, and b.) a great school community. Lots of support for me as a teacher, opportunities to impact the student body of a small school, and opportunities to make academic gains. It is a beautiful opportunity for me, and I am very thankful for it.

Now that I can stop worrying about where I'll be working, I can start figuring out where I want to live, and what the standards are that I need to plan to achieve as a middle-school math teacher. Big relief.

5:15 comes awfully early in the morning, when your body is still on Central Time and you have come to Eastern time. Had to catch the bus for 6:30, and had to make my lunch before that. The school I will be teaching at, Brown Middle, is a beautiful school. Nice, big, old building. I will be teaching 7th grade math there, and we will be catching up to the 7th grade standards for the Atlanta Public Schools. Luckily, that is all given to us. All we have to do is lesson plan and teach.

We were at school from 7-4:30 today, and will be for the next five weeks. I had a blast learning more about what it means to be a highly effective teacher. Every day we are given a huge amount of information to process and consider. We are given viewpoints from which to look at our classrooms specifically and education in general.

Every day, though, I just keep coming back to my individual students. All of the tools we are learning will be so incredibly useful, but I really just want to meet and begin to build relationships with my students. Not just my New Orleans students, but my students this summer. We will work on closing the achievement gap for these summer school students, and then we will work with our own soon enough.

With how busy and how tired I am, it is hard for me to think about stopping for a while and finding a place to be still. Jesus' lifestyle, however, says the opposite. Often, when Jesus was most busy or most tired, he would withdraw to a quiet place to pray. Think about it. The demands on Jesus time were infinite. He had people constantly surrounding him, begging him to help them; or show them something; or impress them. There were legitimate needs to be met. Jesus, however, recognized that if he wasn't poured into, he couldn't pour out as effectively. So Jesus, God in human flesh, withdrew to quiet places to pray. How beautiful is that image, that even Jesus had need for communion with the father, which required him to set aside the troubles and worries and obligations of his day. David, with the amount of time he spent running and hiding and surviving, spent a great deal of time crying out to God for help and deliverance and strength. It really isn't an option.

So I am trying to remember that I need to put on the Armor of God every day. To pray for strength and wisdom, to lead and to follow, each and every day. To protect myself with Righteousness, and to gird myself with Truth. Because if I am covered up by my God, I will be much better equipped to serve my students than Quentin Manuel by himself. And that is the truth.

5:15 is coming quick... maybe I'll try 5:30?? Or maybe I'll hold off on that until I get more comfortable with the routine.