drops of water to wet this parched throat.

i have been trying to teach so far this year without a textbook or any pre-written lessons. the curriculum we use has "exemplar lessons" that teachers can follow to the letter, but the ela teks (i realize that means little to a lot of people) were rewritten this year so there aren't any lessons in our curriculum for english teachers. that combined with not having a textbook has left me getting pretty creative and pretty PRETTY anxious about lesson plans.

 

but today, toward the end of in-service, our assistant superintendent walked in to say that he rescued dozens and dozens of english books that a middle school in saisd was going to throw out. as luck would have it, there are THIRTEEN 6th grade literature books plus TWO teachers editions plus TONS of extra resources -- reading workbooks, an audio library, listening and speaking activities, active reading guides, performance assessments, grammar practice, a research and report writing guide, interdisciplinary activities, etc. etc. etc.

 

AND it's the book i wanted! out of all the state-adopted texts, this is the one i wanted.

 

i cannot describe my joy.

 

i know getting this excited of teaching stuff probably sounds silly, but giving resources...giving HELP...to a first-year teacher is like giving water to a someone dying of thirst. as extreme as it sounds, i am truly dragging myself to each new day, unsure that i will survive.

 

after feeling pretty disjointed and scared for the past few days, i feel like the Lord is saying, "I will never leave you high and dry. I am the Provider of whatever you need. WHATEVER you need. trust Me."