First Year Teaching Roadblocks

I miss my mom. She always knows how to listen to my rants and raves and respond appropriately. Not that I don’t continue to rant and rave to her via Skype, but it’s just not the same. We could sit at the kitchen table and I could rant about my students who I just can't handle, or the times I am sometimes lonely at school; my frustration with failed lessons, my feeling like I’m not a valuable member of these students' education, the lack of respect shown me at school… She’d swap with stories about her horrid 7th graders and the insanely amazing consequences she’d given them as a result of something they’d said or done in class. Then we could eat ice cream or homemade cookies and talk about the nice things about teaching. The students who smile sweetly and answer when you’re desperate for volunteers. The times when students are attentive because they know you’ve got a gem to share with them. The times when students are rowdy and running around the room but it’s a productive rowdy; the hum of ideas flowing from their lips because you’ve inspired them to creativity and their own learning. The times when students say, “Aha!” or “So THAT’S how you do it,” when you’ve explained something to them the 27th time and they finally understand.

Even though we could rant and rave about the awful things we’ve come in contact with, we’d always end with the positives. Because those are the reasons both of us teach. And if we don’t focus on those particulars, we’d completely lose faith. Those are what I need to focus on now. Even when those times are few and far between in my first year of teaching, that’s what I need to continue to strive for. Continue to try for. Continue to plan, plan, plan for. Continue to fail, brush myself off, and try it another way for. So that when all is said and done after this experience, these students will have made me a better teacher, and I will have made these students better learners and people.