Week 2 Term 2 - My reflection.

Everyday I try to read through my daily devotionals. Whether it is the first thing I do when I get to work (or in this case, the first thing I do when I go to my make-shift office in my changing room) or throughout the day. I try to set time to read through my word of encouragement. If you are anything like me, my motivation and will is influenced by what I read (my devotions, Bible), the people who I love and ultimately in my 'faith' in God.

The message from my devotional on Monday morning was 'giants fade'. 'Giants' that we face in life can be constant fear, anxiety, depression, doubt, questioning your worth - just to name a few. The thing is that the more we feed this 'Giant', the longer it will stay. The more we allow this 'giant' to control how we think, how we relate, how we love, how we speak, how we live - the more we loose our grounding, our strength. The message concludes with "when we ask for God's help, even if these giants aren't destroyed, completely or immediately, their power will fade as our relationship with Him grows deeper". Hence the message 'giants fade' - they do not stay, they do not have to hold power over you. 

Woah! I was not prepared or ready for that but that was exactly what I needed to hear heading into week 2 of Term 2. One of the many 'giants' I had experienced in week 1 was wondering if I could make an impact with my learners online. I became really worried at the end of week 1, stressing about the achievement outcome for my senior students and for my Y11 cohort. Can they access their online learning? Are they asking for help? Am I doing enough? Do I need call home and talk to the parents? Have I added everything that I need to on my Google site? I tell you , the questioning went on and they began to form into this 'giant' that I did not know how to face. The devotional I read though really made me reflect and understand that these questions, this 'giant', is something that I do have an element of authority over. I can make an impact, I just need to change my approach. Instead of question and doubt, just prepare everything, be intentional about what I want each lesson to look like for my students and have a clear finish line in mind. Communicate this with my students, then hope for the best! 

So, I sit here at 10:22pm, still on my laptop and thinking about my highlights and low lights for week 2. 

Highlights: 

• One of my Level 3 students has completed their first Level 3 English internal assessment! 1 down, 26 to go. 
• English Department - I am working alongside a great team of educators. I am enjoying seeing how we are building this department together. We have some great meetings and have started to work with each member individually on how they will work with their students who are not achieving. It has been enlightening and a definite highlight! 

Low lights: 

• Concern over students who are absent, not accessing their online learning and in turn not achieving. My low light is exactly that. It is not the end. It is not final. Only if I allow it to be.

I am going into this weekend with the same attitude and approach. An approach that will focus on finding a solution to the problem, an approach that will try its best to stop meddling with the problem and instead try and see the end result as oppose to feeling that I have stopped at a dead end. An approach that will look forward to and enjoy the process of online learning. An approach that will remind me that 'giants' fade.