Year One

I can officially wear an "I survived my first year teaching" badge!

The great thing about the end of this year is that I felt like I did far more than just survive. There were certainly times where it felt like an immense struggle to keep my head above water. There were certainly times when I felt as though nothing was going right. These were ultimately just moments in what was an overall enjoyable year.

This next year will, of course, be nothing like what I had planned. One major change that I will need to adapt to is being the team leader for 5th grade. As excited as I am to have this responsibility, it certainly was not something I anticipated taking on until my third or fourth year teaching. This is certainly an opportunity that I am grateful for and cannot wait to take on. Of course, any advice and best practices that anyone wants to share would be more than helpful so I can avoid as many silly mistakes as possible. 

As part of this new role, I was also allowed to take part in interviews for teachers coming onto the fifth-grade team in the new school year. I honestly thought that sitting in an interview as the person asking the question would relieve some of the pressure. It does not. I was incredibly tense and I felt so much responsibility and pressure. How do you truly determine whether someone is a good fit for a position, team, and campus? What questions really let you get to know others and how they work? How can you tell if someone is great at their work or great at interviews?

Luckily, we found people for the team pretty quickly. No more interviews, but the tension has not really lifted completely. In some ways, I feel particularly responsible for the success or failure of this person next year. This is a wildly new experience for me and I am not too sure how to navigate it. The pressure is so real and I hope that I can find a way to make it work in my favor as we march closer to the start of the next school year.

This summer, I have also had to opportunity to work as a Science Curriculum writer here in Fort Worth. It was certainly one of those serendipitous opportunities that I just sort of stumbled into. I was in a training and one thing led to another and I was getting recommended to be a part of the team. I have learned an incredible amount about Fort Worth, the school district, and the people that live and work here. Not to mention it's a nice short-term summer gig to help pay for graduate school.

As the school year came to a close, I was also completing my first grad school class, a Maymester. Those two weeks were incredibly intense (and expensive). However, I learned quite a lot and it has actually prepared me in part for the additional leadership I will be taking on in the Fall. Based on this experience, I think I will have an alright time completing the rest of this degree in time to graduate next spring.

I did not get to write this post as early as I would have liked, but I didn't know that the sprint to the end of the year continued long after the students left the building on the last day. Pretty soon, I will get to stop and breathe and enjoy this time away from work. The amazing thing about finding myself in a career I truly enjoy is that part of me has been ready for the next school year to start. I am so excited to apply the things that I have learned about myself and about teaching. I am excited to get to know a new group of students. This really shows me that I have really found a great place to be.