I made it to Fall Break! What a whirlwind this has been. My job has been a lot more intense than I expected it to be. Adding classes and family obligations on top of that has left me feeling overwhelmed. The thing that really put me over the edge was having to ask for extensions on my midterms. I felt like I was failing at life. But then I talked myself down from the edge. What was the worst thing that could happen? I know things are going well at work. They want and need me. I feel supported (even if I am pretty much expected to train myself). I know there is a teacher shortage in Arizona. Again, I am wanted and needed. I know I am not at risk of being fired from my job. So the worst thing that could happen is failing a class and having to repeat it. Again, this would not be the end of the world. It is just something I have never experienced before. I don't like that scenario at all. As it turned out, my teachers were happy to give me an extension. The first midterm has been graded, and I got an A. I don't think I am going to fail. On the job front, I just finished parent conferences. I went five days in a row with the class under control. I definitely ended the quarter on a high note. I had a 100% turnout from the parents. Even more exciting is that it was all positive. I got some really nice feedback from the parents. One said how much her daughter loves me. Another said they like the way I communicate. I did have to have a hard conversation with a couple of parents whose kids are pretty far behind academically. Nobody wants to hear that, but they needed to know. I talked about how we were trying to help at school and begged them to work with their kids at home with materials I send home weekly. The only negative feedback was from a mom who hasn't made any effort to contact me. She doesn't empty the weekly folder and read the notes. She hasn't signed up for Class Dojo, where I send positive messages and pictures on a regular basis. Her daughter is a behavior problem. I had to send an email one day because she poked another kid with a pencil and showed a disrespectful attitude toward me. Instead of responding to the email, she returned a school wide survey saying the teacher doesn't send home positive communication. (She didn't come to the conference either, Dad came.) That rattled me a little. It is difficult to get on the phone and check in with parents with positive feedback on top of everything else I'm doing, but I know some parents will get really offended if all they hear is negative. That was the one setback after a very good week. I am not going to lose sleep over it.