I recently started a very challenging adventure in my life: I am teaching.  I am teaching summer school for kids who need to go to the 7th grade; kids who, I recently discovered, lack the knowledge to solve simple long-division problems.  Kids who still have trouble with multiplication, do not know what a percent is, and some who do not know the units of length.  This past week, I taught every day for the first time.  My third day, there were tears.  Tears due to lack of sleep, frustration with myself, and frustration with whoever failed my students.  I let myself be angry - after a day of feeling inadequate and questioning my reasons to be here, along with only 4 hours of sleep every night (max), I needed that fuel.  It’s so easy to get frustrated with the educational system and wonder if we are really making a difference.  I have no idea what is in store for my students after summer school… and that almost scares me.  But I do know that I am learning so much from them, maybe more than they are learning from me.  While these weeks are all about classroom management and bridging the achievement gap, for me, it’s just about having my students realize that THEY HAVE THE TOOLS.  They have, and will get, the tools to do whatever they want to do in life.  They deserve the world!