The end of the school year in May marked the 8th time I closed up my classroom for the summer. As I locked up my room and reflected on the past 9 months, I couldn't help but be amazed.
This was with out a doubt the year that tested my desire for teaching the most. I have felt it coming ever since baby number one came along. Feeling like I was just putting in my time until I can officially say I'm done for a while and go home to be with my babies.
This year was hard. Both emotionally and professionally. Major technology upgrades meant spending a lot of time trying to figure out the new iPads and how the kids were supposed to use them in a practical way. Figuring out and creating new lesson plans to match the new Social Studies standards that were put in place this year. Trying to prepare lesson plans for 8 weeks maternity leave. Computer hard drive crashing AFTER finishing said lesson plans for long term sub. Redoing all lesson plans for long term sub, while coaching volleyball 8-9 months pregnant. And that's just the first two months of the school year...
Returning from maternity leave didn't make things much easier, and by Spring Break I was looking for anything and everything to find a way out. How much more time do I have to spend doing this?
Then something happened.
Things in my classroom started falling in place.
The technology got easier.
I was still redoing lesson plans from the failed hard drive, but it turned out that the new plans were better.
Both 7th and 8th grade classes finished with some cool end of the year projects, which they ROCKED!
People noticed.
And I noticed that spark returning. That drive that made me excited to be in the classroom.
And for the first time in 7 years I'm spending the first few weeks of my summer thinking about August. The changes, the room arrangement, the lesson plans, the projects, the new classes and new faces.
Maybe, just maybe I've turned a corner. Made it through the 7 year itch.
And found the motivation to keep going.
1 comment:
Great title for this post. Glad you feel revived. I despised the 2009-2010 year wondering if I could continue doing it. But kept telling myself, this too shall pass. And I think I finally figured out how to add blogs I am following on my blog page! I'm a slow learner with this.
Post a Comment