May 22 2010

Project Fail

by chrisb

My life keeps getting in the way of my Happiness Project. Despite my best efforts to completely separate work life and home life, two weeks ago I was faced with deadlines and I was forced to bring work home for the first three nights of the week. This, combined with Saturday school that weekend, made me feel completely burnt out all last week. I completely fell off the bandwagon on my Happiness Project, and I feel way less happy because of that. Scott says that given the circumstances, my Happiness Project didn’t stand a chance.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe, given how much I hate my job, and how demanding it is, there’s no way to find extra happiness for the next four weeks. This is an extremely depressing outlook, and I’m trying to bolster my happiness efforts. But I also know that the ending of school tends to be an incredibly busy and stressful time, so I’m just bracing myself for having to go into total survival mode for the next 19 days of school.

In other news, I have decided what I’m doing after teaching. I’ve been accepted into San Jose State University’s graduate school. I will work on a Master’s degree in Recreation, Hospitality, and Tourism Management. I am hoping to become an event planner, perhaps even for education nonprofits. I am really excited about this next stage in my life! I know it’s a complete 180 from teaching, but given how difficult my year has been, I think that’s what I need. I’m ready to spend a couple of years focusing on myself and my marriage, and after that then I can go back to working on other people.

Here’s to new beginnings!

 

Categories: Life Beyond Teaching, Teach For America, Third Year · 2 Comments

2 Responses

1. dkzody

   I hope this goes well for you. I just went back and read your first set of posts in May 2007. As you were planning to start a teaching career, I was realizing that my teaching career would be winding down within the next three years. Twenty one years and it’s time to get off the bus, but I want to get on another bus, perhaps working for a nonprofit. I just spent two days in SF at the Microfinance USA 2010 conference and saw many possibilities. We’ll have to keep posting and see where it all goes.

   on May 24, 2010 at 6:15 pm · Reply
2. Neil Rigole

   Hi Miss Bennett,
   My name is Neil Rigole and I am a doctoral candidate at Georgia State University in Atlanta conducting research on the identity development of beginning teachers via the narrative analysis of their blogs. I am particularly interested in Teach for America corps members’ blogging on the TeachFor.Us website. In my research, I am only including teachers who have blogged for the majority of their first two years in the classroom, and your blog is one of the few that falls into this category. I would only use your first two years even if you have blogged past that point. Would you consider allowing me to use your blog postings for this research? Your participation is voluntary, and your anonymity will be secured. This research has been granted approval through the Institutional Review Board of Georgia State University and if you agree to be a part of the study I will send you the official Informed Consent Form which details the research and your rights as a participant. The analysis will be conducted this summer (July-September) as I hope to defend my dissertation late fall 2010 or early spring 2011. I can be reached via email at nrigole1@student.gsu.edu should you agree to participate.
   Thanks so much for your consideration!

   Neil

   on July 8, 2010 at 7:01 pm · Reply