About half way through that year - Tradução em português

Olá,

Não consigo traduzir a parte em negrito e também não entendo a parte "about half way through".

I jokingly told him that I would be happy to help him as soon as he turned in the 37,000 delinquent words owed me from years before. Well, as you can see, things got out of control during my first year of teaching. # It was apparent to me about half way through that year, and for all subsequent years, that " toughness " really wasn't the answer to managing my students.

Muito obrigado desde já.

Márcio Alexandre