End of the year creeping up

With the final meeting of our CSUSM classes meeting tomorrow I am realizing how much I have managed to let University pile up and now come crashing down on me.  I'm too late, but my semester has been one hurdle and surprise after another and I have not managed to catch up and catch a breath.  From changing CT's classrooms to TPA mess ups, the challenges keep on coming.  Every week I think, this is going to be it, I'm going to catch up and be able to breathe this week, and then another hurdle presents itself.  I knew this semester would be hard because on top of school and teaching I'm also coaching and picked up another job, but I thought I could balance it all.  Instead what has happened is my week to week outlook turned into day to day and now I live hour by hour.  I often find myself up at 1 and 2 in the morning trying to get everything done for the next day which is uncharacteristic for me.  I am a planner and I like to have everything done well in advanced and due to the length of my to do lists I have not been able to function in my normal way.  I have been a ball of stress and put me into "survival mode" just to get the necessary and immediate things done. This has caused me to keep pushing university work down and down on my priority list because I do not need that work to be successful that day. 

This is not to say that I have completely ignored what I have learned and have had to be reflective on from my classes, it just means I have not put it in writing.  I often tweet about how in over my head I am to have a presence online.  But I know that this is not a productive way to be using my PLN.  I have often found myself scrolling through Pinterest, Twitter and Diigo to find ideas to use in my classroom when time gets tight.  I have been able to find lessons and resources to help me succeed in my day to day life in the classroom.  I am grateful for this class because it is the reason I have been able to keep up with my teaching.  Even though I have not caught up on my blog reflections and concrete assignments for my classes, I have been using and putting to use the tools we learned about.  Catch up Blog posts to follow.