The Author

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I am a high school English teacher, and mother of two charming little ones of my own. I teach in a high poverty urban charter school, while I live in a typical American suburb that has frequently been rated one of the safest cities in the country. It is a paradox I struggle with constantly, but it is my life.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

I hate that I work well under pressure...

You know how some people just seem to work really well under pressure? Like when a deadline is looming, things get done with much more efficiency than ever before? Unfortunately, that is totally me. The deadline of Monday for these two units being done has been sitting heavily upon my shoulders and has meant that I have spent most of my weekend focusing on it. I was reassured that I am not the only one by the frequent updates and tip emails I was getting from the English coach (who they are due to) over the past few days. If I was the only one who hadn't turned them in yet, there certainly wouldn't be series of emails to the whole group! ;-)

So, I worked my butt off on them yesterday. I took a few breaks- trip to the farmer's market and a break to help make dinner- but other than that, I pretty much spent my day frantically typing up lessons for these units. I am like 3/4 of the way done with the first unit... but the frightening thing is that I haven't started the second unit yet, or the other part of this project, which is scoring work from the unit I piloted last year. The scoring should go fast and be a welcome break from lesson writing, and realistically, the second unit should go faster than the first, but realistically... I have today to get it all done, and I will also be going to church. This pretty much means that I will be doing only this after church today.

The amusing part is that I know the stuff I am producing is good quality. It is funny... I really do work better under pressure for some reason. I think it is just a certain type of person. There are students in my Honors classes who always turn papers in at the very last minute and I can tell they were up all night writing them, but then when I read them I am always really impressed. Same problem- they work better under pressure. Then there is the other vast percentage of my students whose work feels painfully rushed and half-assed when they do it last minute. I want to believe I am in the minority on this one, because I am actually really proud of the work I have done over the past few days.  I kind of hate that I have subconsciously figured this out about myself, because maybe if I didn't know that I can get things done at the last minute, it wouldn't be so easy for me to let them wait until the last minute.

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