pros and cons

the start of school has its pros and cons, as everyone is familiar with. the thing that determines the overall theme of the year is the result of pros verses cons. will the pros outweigh the cons and, thereby result in an pretty great year? at the beginning of the fall semester, this is still up in the air. i've had a week of this semester's college courses so far and, other than a class at 8am on tuesdays and thursdays that i've been tardy 50% of the 2 times we've had class so far. so the overall theme for this year? .... that's still to be determined.

as for the teaching, well, it's been two weeks since the start of school for the public schools here and we're still working on the basic classroom etiquette that is expected of each student. it seems that the boys talk more than the girls! i wouldn't have guessed that. there are so very many pros in seminary teaching. unfortunately, there are still cons to deal with. 9th grade is rough! i know! and that insight gives me more understanding for the students I have. however, it still does not completely excuse their actions. this is where i feel conflict inside myself - how am i able to be so frustrated with certain students, yet still have so much love for them that i just want to squeeze them to death? it must be a gift Heavenly Father provides for those of us in leadership positions over the youth of the church.

so what do you do? you want to take this little person over your knee and give them a good smack on the rear. but then you also want to just give them a hug and tell them that they're an amazing child of God who's just going through a really hard time right now. ... i'll just have to figure this out with trial and error.

one last thought. i find such irony in the fact that i try to teach my students the exact things i need to work on myself. i need to be a better student - reading the assigned chapters of reading material before i get to my college course and participating in the lectures. i am learning so much from these fantastic 9th graders. i see it as the Lord's way of giving me a swift kick in the right direction. thank goodness for those, right? it's how i know He still loves me.