All my days blend together into one pot of stress and anxiety; however, I'm still attempting to make it through student teaching in one piece. This week, like all the rest thus far, has had its ups and downs: from attitudes over cell phone reprimands, sleeping in class, and diminished effort to thought-provoking questions, accurate recall, and on-task behavior. My students are a conundrum - a group of enigmas that like to test my patience on a daily basis ... but they're good kids, and I love my job.

Of course, we had another snow day which means that my five-day plan had to be reduced to three days of active instruction. I had to condense my pacing guide once again to fit the crazy schedule for the next seven weeks.

I honestly can't believe that I only have seven weeks left. It feels like just yesterday I stepped in the classroom for the first time and observed who I can now call my students ... all 109 of them.

What I have learned over the course of the week is that teaching is entirely trial and error. And not even just trial and error with one class; what works for one group of students is like torture to the next group of students. I have to consistently be on my toes, and it only took me five weeks to realize that not students need to be held more accountable. Therefore, I'm making some changes.

Instead of feeding students the answers, they're going to have to extrapolate meaning themselves. This upcoming week, the students will assume the role of the teacher so that I know they're comprehending Shakespeare's language. Once again, it will be trial and error with my students, but I'm going to take one day at a time and just enjoy it because I love what I do.

If you avid readers can't already tell, my week was stressful. While I did manage to do a majority of the work during the week, I still had to do some planning over the weekend, and this weekend was a special one.

Once the students stampeded out of the building and I finished gathering my belongings, I headed to my car and began the five-hour drive home. You see, it was my mom and my aunt's birthday this weekend; so, I drove home to participate in a few days of relaxation that consisted of a much needed spa day.

As I sit here typing another insight into my life, I'm enjoying the relaxing elevator music with a steaming mug of green tea after a Swedish massage. It was glorious to just let someone else knead the stress knots out of my system. I thought I'd be more nervous that a young male was giving my massage, but I think he was more nervous, and I couldn't tell you why. I showed up to the spa in leggings and my signature Yuengling sweatshirt, sans eyebrows. I was looking like a hot mess, and it took everything in me not to laugh at the nervous jitters.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm really tempting fate by staying longer than I had planned. Hopefully, I don't hit insane traffic and make it back to my humble abode in a timely manner to get some planning under my belt before class tomorrow morning. In Alex fashion, I'm pushing the limits and hoping that coffee will get me through the trials and tribulations of my day to day. Stay tuned to hear about my adventures as a classroom teacher!