I Must Be Incompetent

Today was one of those pressure-cooker-totally-stressful-I-suck-at-life kind of days.  I try really hard.  I try to be a good mom.  I try to be a good teacher.  I try to be a good person.  Even when I think I'm doing ok, though, I sometimes have days like today when I feel like no one else thinks I do anything right and everyone think I am just incompetent.

Do people I work with read my blog?  Probably.  It's linked from my school website and I'm sure I have some student or colleague blog stalkers.  Should I be careful what I write?  Probably.  Do I need a moment to vent, though?  Yes.

Some people are highly critical.
Some people in education do not know how to present to a group of others.
Sometimes leaders don't understand what is going on under their stewardship.
Though the term "professional" may be defined in small groups as part of a meeting, sometimes people continue to be very inappropriate in the same meeting - derogatory comments, cell phones ringing, people leaving before the meeting is over, etc.
Some people are never satisfied with any quality of work you try to contribute to a group.
Some people seem to have lost focus of what it means to improve student understanding and student learning.
Some people have the ability to leave you feeling absolutely incompetent after every interaction you ever have with them.
Some people don't know how to prepare copies that include the text they are going to read from.
Some people treat everyone like they are better than them.
Some people don't feel like they need to be accountable or follow any set of established professional standards.
Some people do not understand how to do math and when trying to teach students how to do it, just make it worse.



Some small children melt down in cars on the way home from school, then melt down at dinner for no apparent reason, but then end the day dancing away, completely uninhibited in the middle of a bunch of crazy high school kids.

Some small children are nearly always happy to see the mom even after the mom has a day like today.  They still smile and giggle and love you . . .  and then puke on you . . . but it's ok.

Some people write general statements on blogs to represent interactions with a variety of other people on a bad day in hopes that it will make them feel better and that tomorrow will improve.

Football meets the Gospel

It's football season.  This is a good video.  I like Elder Uchtdorf.