45 days

It has been entirely too long between now and my last post and so much has happened in that time.

October blues hit, but not as hard as November. November allowed me to go home for thanksgiving (which was such a blessing! samuel even came to join my family!). December gave me winter break and I'm fairly certain that December was the month that my students officially began hating me. January came, and I realized that I had made it halfway through my first year of teaching..which is truly a victory in itself. I had my seniors AND my freshmen do a socratic seminar (student led discussion) and they were making pretty good progress academically! 

9th graders in their socratic seminar!

And in February I returned to JMU for the first time since October, which was wonderful. I visited my sisters and Samuel. 

the Huff family!! Taylor (my little), myself, Lauren (my grandlittle), Emily (my other grandlittle), and another Lauren (my great-grandlittle)! beautiful ladies <3

After a long weekend, I returned to Booker T Washington High School and wrapped up Othello with my seniors. We managed to get through the entire play and they absolutely loved it! 

12th graders "reading" Othello

Towards the end of February, I went to senior breakfast with my seniors. I am unsure why, but Florida schools have their senior breakfast way before graduation. Most of my seniors are still unsure if they are even going to graduate... but it was a great time regardless! We went to the Fountainebleau in Miami, which is a crazy nice hotel, and we got a wonderful breakfast, the senior superlatives were revealed, and the students even got an hour and a half of dancing in before we took the bus back to Booker T. 

One of my students and I. She definitely looks older lol

In March..I lost a lot of patience for incompetence. I felt myself growing really bitter towards people that I work with and becoming frustrated at what i believe is the reason for the achievement gap. I had/have a lot of pressure coming from above and I really do not like to fail. I felt like I was given a job that could never be fixed, something that I was given as a filler. March is when I accepted that my big goal for my seniors (we will all graduate) is not something that I can accomplish with them. I am not giving up on my kids, I do think that they all have a future that is good, but I have changed my locust of control. There is only so much that I, as Jenn Ahokas, can do. The rest is up to God, and I know that He can do so much more for my kids than I ever will. Since this realization, not only have I noticed, but my students have also noticed a difference in me. Only by God's grace, I have grown to be the patient and loving teacher that I so desired to be in August. 

I promise I have a life (sort of) outside of school! I went to the Miami-Dade county fair with a couple of TFA teachers and had a blast! It was so fun being a kid again :] 

view from the ferris wheel

And I also had friends come visit in mid-march! Melissa, Kim, and Kareen, all girls who I've known since elementary school, came to Miami during their spring break (or vacation) and spent some time with me in this crazy city! We did something almost every single day and I got to experience Miami as a tourist, which is always so fun! A lot of eating at restaurants  going to the beach, walking around, and just having fun being silly! 

Outside at the cleavelander

On that saturday, march 23rd, we all flew back to New Jersey. It was the end of their spring break and the beginning of mine! I spent a couple days with my family, including my brother (whom i love very much and am so blessed by every time i see him <3) and then drove down to JMU for a couple of days to see Samuel! At the end of the trip I headed up to Northern Virginia to spend time at the Mertins' household! For those of you who do not know Haley Mertins, she was my college roommate for ALL 4 YEARS. For all four of those years, i spent easter at her home in Northern Virginia, and just because we are graduated and live really far apart, does not mean that I could break tradition and not spend easter weekend with her. We went paddleboarding and kayaking in the Potomac River and then church and family on easter sunday :] 

All in all, I've been doing pretty well. I love my students, and I have grown to really love teaching. I'm really excited to continue getting better at it. 

THERE ARE 45 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT

I have exactly 45 school days to transformationally change my kids' lives. I have no idea how I'm going to do that, I'm not even sure if I understand how someone is supposed to change a life. But, I'm sure as heck gonna try.

Prayer requests: patience, love, energy, and enthusiasm. Also, my students. They go through so much more than I could ever imagine going through at any age, let alone high school.