I can’t believe how fast the school year went by. I still remember when I first received my job on the 6th of August, the day before Andy’s wedding, and I started on the 9th, leaving me with 0 days to actually plan for classes. My first year teaching was not easy at all because juggling BTSA, along with the countless hours of prepping, and grading (HW/projects/test/quizzes) papers sucked the life out of me. If you are going into teaching and want to teach at the middle school level, BE PREPARED! Kids be going through puberty so hormones be raging every day!!! Every day was a new battle…

I realized this year as I was teaching, I was not only a teacher, but I was also a role-model, a coach, a police, a counselor, a janitor, a psychologist, a judge, a parent, and an older brother. Making phone calls to parents, writing referrals, writing up reports, and being observed stressed me out weekly. Some days I just wanted to flat out give up. During spring break, I had two weeks to re-evaluate myself and see if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. To make it short, I knew that every job has it’s challenges and nothing comes easy. The challenge that was placed before was the challenge I am willing to take. By the end of spring break, after countless hours of thought and prayer, my passion for teaching was renewed. Man!!!! I love my job and would teach for the rest of my life! I believe that this is one the greatest job that anyone could do. I am blessed with the opportunity to make an impact on countless students and teachers lives.

What made my job totally worth it was today when we had an honor’s assembly. I had the honor to announce the names for some of my students who received award(s). As the principal announced my name to read off names for the awards ceremony, the room was filled with the sound of shouting, cheering, and clapping. As I was walking up to the podium, the entire auditorium was filled with the chanting of Mr. Hu! Mr. Hu! Mr. Hu! Some of the students that were cheering were not even my own students. It was really encouraging and very rewarding to experience all this. As a teacher, I guess I did my job well this year. ALL GLORY to God, I am totally not worthy! Well, as this chapter of my life closes, so does my contract at Cope Middle School. I am really going to miss this school along with all the students and all the faculty members that I worked with. They always had my back and were really supportive of me. I am also really proud of all my students. Where I’ll be next year, I don’t know. Only God knows. Wherever I end up, I hope to continue what I have been doing and more! Thank You Lord for all these opportunities and the many more that are to come.

WOW that was a lot…If you read all this thank you for your time!

Day 0 (Tuesday)- My day started off at 5:30 in the morning so that I can shower and get ready to leave my house by 6am latest. Driving to Redlands took me about 1 hour to get there and I didn’t hit any traffic, praise the Lord! I’m really thankful to have this job and I definitely know it was God who provided me with such an opportunity. Yesterday was my first time officially working as a teacher and I was just really excited to meet all the faculty members. During our staff meeting we played icebreakers and went into going over logistics of what will happen in the next couple of days. Good thing the meeting was real short and to the point. I love the principal a lot because she’s got timing down to the dot, which allowed us a lot of time to prepare our classrooms and get other things done. There’s still a lot of things that I need to get done since I barely started. I then found out later that day that there was gonna be an open house, so I rushed and prepared everything as fast as I could. The Lord is really good in providing me the strength to complete the tasks that I presented before me. At the open house I realized that it was more of a meet and greet with the students so I left a little early before it actually ended. I didn’t get home till 8:30-9ish. Once I got home I got myself some dinner and knocked out at 9:30pm. The drives have just been killer for me, but what can I do I have nowhere close to live long term? I trust the Lord will provide.

Day 1-This morning I woke up not as excited as I should be because of a lot of frustration that I was dealing inside from the night before. My first day didn’t actually feel like a first day. I got to school real early so I started reading the Word starting in 1 Timothy 1. Amidst all the curve balls I’ve been getting these past couple of days, as Paul reminded Timothy in verse 18 to fight the good fight I can hear God reminding me that I too need to fight the good fight within my spirit. My attitude needed a lot of change and it did as I saw my first batch of students come in. I really enjoyed getting to meet my students today because their energy restored a lot of mines. It’ll be my first time teaching middle school students this year, but I believe 7th grader are a lovely bunch of students to teach. I definitely know there will be trials that I will encounter in the near future, but where I am placed is where God wants me to be. I realized as I’m going to be teaching 7th graders God is reminding me that 7 is the number for perfection or completion. What the Lord started in me while I was back in Riverside as I was getting in to teaching He has surely completed every step up to the point of where I’m at right now. 

I was encouraged through Lamentations 3:19-25 at the end of the day…

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I will remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him…

Thank you Lord for always being so good. Hallelujah Amen.

I leave you guys with a picture of my classroom.

From an excerpt I read: “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says,: “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.””

-Lloyd-Jones

Sometimes what we need to do is to preach to our own souls, remember what is good, and that God is our hope because He has everything under control.