Busy February

I've been blessed with some of my own teaching moments lately. I wrote about a lesson learned not too long ago. Here's the most recent serendipitous one:

I've been coaching a girl in Academic Decathlon. Of the two who signed up for it, she was the only one who remained eligible to compete this year. She also happens to be involved with basketball, Natural Helpers, Student Council, and was chosen for the People to People program and will be going to Australia this year. She also went to Seward with me at the beginning of the year. Clearly, she's the lazy type.

She told me tonight that she chose to go play basketball in another village this week over competing in the Academic Decathlon district meet tomorrow (Wed) and Thursday. I couldn't blame her; the meet was supposed to take place Monday/Tuesday but was pushed late due to the weather. Her choice didn't surprise me, and by now I am used to the daily changes in plans and postponements; she, however, felt bad for 'bailing' on me. I found myself telling her to have fun and that "it gets tough to do it all, doesn't it?"

For about the second time in as many weeks, my own words gave me pause. As of right now, I'm the designated hostess for our weekly basketball tournaments, Aca Deca coach, starting after-school tutoring for the seniors soon, trying to put together a science fair, and lastly, I just began one of the last of two classes to complete my Masters degree, which has me tethered to my computer more often than I'd like. Oh, and I'm supposed to teach somewhere in there too.

It occurred to me that maybe I should take my own advice. Lately I've been a bit anxious about getting it all done and done well. Maybe I should say no to something? Probably. The truth is, I get more done with more on my plate as opposed to less, and I enjoy my time more. The only problem is that burnout is likely to take place.

The reality is that something will probably fall through even if burnout doesn't happen - I anticipate that either the science fair or event-hosting will suffer. I may just have to recruit someone else to host one of our many events. Surely that's something that doesn't require my oversight, and it wouldn't break my heart to hand over that duty. And, truth be told, I don't really do much to host other than set it all up and welcome the teams. I usually just keep moving really fast so I look busy, and people then tend to figure things out on their own. So sneaky I am!

In a month when I am pulling my hair out and running on 4 hours of sleep and ridiculous amounts of coffee, I'll look back on this post and either laugh or cry. Probably a combination of both. Here's hoping I can balance it all, and remember that it really is tough to do it all.

If nothing else, such a busy schedule means that it'll be time for manaqing (ice fishing) in the sun soon! And that is something that I cannot wait to add to the list!