Things I learned from my second year of teaching
Every year our department creates lists of things that we've learned from the year. Here is my list:
1. Just like my students vary from year to year, my reactions to the end of the year vary too. Last year I was waving cheerily as they walked out the door wishing them a good summer and I couldn’t wait to get on with my summer. This year I fought back tears as some of my kids walked out the door.
2. Teaching kids can make your emotions swing wildly. One minute you can be extremely happy, the next minute you feel like stabbing someone. Three minutes later you feel hungry.
3. I don’t have kids so I’m still amazed at how deeply you can care for students. Some of them I just want to tuck under my wing like a mother hen and not them go on to the “big bad world”.
4. No matter how much you tell yourself that one kid isn’t going to piss you off today….. Chances are they still will…..
5. When packing up your room, it’s helpful if you do NOT put all of your supplies in random boxes and then tape them all up. Because you will have to open them all up to look for random things you STILL need like a stapler, a marker, paper clips, pens and tape.
6. If there is going to be a “random” drug test because I drive a bus, I will “randomly” get picked every STINKING time.
7. I’ve learned that you can work with someone for two years and they might still not know your name :o) And that I'll probably just confuse them even more when my last name is different next year.
8. I’ve learned that it’s really easy to teach kids classroom procedures for simple things, for example: automatically getting up for germ-x every time they sneeze or sitting in their desk and waiting for me to dismiss them when the bell rings. It’s much harder to get the most “active” students to sit there quietly during a lesson. I’m still working on that one.
9. Subs hardly EVER follow the detailed instructions that I leave. It really makes me not want to leave sub notes ever again.
10. I am glad that I’m finally in a building and not in a portable but sometimes I feel so bad for the class next to me because I know the walls are thin.
1. Just like my students vary from year to year, my reactions to the end of the year vary too. Last year I was waving cheerily as they walked out the door wishing them a good summer and I couldn’t wait to get on with my summer. This year I fought back tears as some of my kids walked out the door.
2. Teaching kids can make your emotions swing wildly. One minute you can be extremely happy, the next minute you feel like stabbing someone. Three minutes later you feel hungry.
3. I don’t have kids so I’m still amazed at how deeply you can care for students. Some of them I just want to tuck under my wing like a mother hen and not them go on to the “big bad world”.
4. No matter how much you tell yourself that one kid isn’t going to piss you off today….. Chances are they still will…..
5. When packing up your room, it’s helpful if you do NOT put all of your supplies in random boxes and then tape them all up. Because you will have to open them all up to look for random things you STILL need like a stapler, a marker, paper clips, pens and tape.
6. If there is going to be a “random” drug test because I drive a bus, I will “randomly” get picked every STINKING time.
7. I’ve learned that you can work with someone for two years and they might still not know your name :o) And that I'll probably just confuse them even more when my last name is different next year.
8. I’ve learned that it’s really easy to teach kids classroom procedures for simple things, for example: automatically getting up for germ-x every time they sneeze or sitting in their desk and waiting for me to dismiss them when the bell rings. It’s much harder to get the most “active” students to sit there quietly during a lesson. I’m still working on that one.
9. Subs hardly EVER follow the detailed instructions that I leave. It really makes me not want to leave sub notes ever again.
10. I am glad that I’m finally in a building and not in a portable but sometimes I feel so bad for the class next to me because I know the walls are thin.
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