Craziness!!

So... last week was spring break - which was totally awesome!!! It was a much needed break from the stresses of the previous week, when I was totally freaked out about applying for jobs. So I spoiled myself with a trip to New York City and spent the rest of the week doing nothing productive. :) Now it's back to the grind... sigh.

Anyway, I was thinking about how stressful my week was before break, but I didn't talk at all about how stressful my students' lives were right before break. Sometimes I forget that my incredibly talented students have ridiculously busy schedules as well, and I need to acknowledge that. We had a crazy schedule. One day the 9th graders all went to the university for Engineering Day, and another day the 9th graders had an all day Humanities exhibition called Afrika Lives! The 11th graders have been in SAT prep, and they spent an entire school day taking a practice test. So besides the fact that we were working all our students like crazy, they also had a billion arts-related events! (We are an absurd school with how much time we require of our students.) The senior theatre majors had their senior showcase, the senior music majors had their senior recitals, and the junior and senior dancers had their spring show. The senior visual arts majors have their show this Thursday, so they've all been in crunch time for a while now. It's really just incredible how much work they do. Oh, and I forgot! They had their talent show the Friday before break. And they all gave amazingly awesome performances. I definitely cried several times. I was such a proud mother.

And on top of all that, my Math 3 students were working on a huge business proposal project, AND I gave them a midterm exam that covered EVERYTHING we've learned this semester. Oy! I feel stressed just thinking about it all. Anyway, I suppose my point in writing all of this is that I felt like I really tried cramming too many things into one week. I felt stressed, and I'm sure the students felt stressed too. Some of them got so overwhelmed that they just shut down and didn't produce any work. Others simply gave very poor performances. And I don't like that I didn't provide them with a productive learning environment. I want my students to feel proud of their work, and I'm not sure they did. They felt rushed, and I felt rushed. I suppose it's simply something I really need to take into consideration in the future. Sometimes life gets in the way, and it's just not always worth it to push forward if the students are not satisfied.