Getting excited...

I have been spending the morning writing my lesson plans for the week. I am SO excited. My students are doing some really exciting novel extension activities this week. They have been doing such a great job reading the novel and I do not want to simply give them a test and move on. Instead, we're going to make some neat art pieces and have the novel 'come alive.' I hope they enjoy actually doing the activities as much as I have enjoyed planning them. I'm pretty sure they will. I'm very fortunate to have students who are not opposed to doing more creative and artistic projects. They recognize the value in doing these sort of right-brained things in the classroom and rarely do I get an attitude when we attempt to do seemingly 'cheesy' things. This is very fortunate for me, as I ooze gooey melted cheese in the classroom and my students know it.

Something you do vs. Something you are.

I am realizing more and more that teaching is not merely something you do, rather a teacher is something you are. Unlike so many other professions, you do not teach for a certain amount of time each day and then leave your 'office' to ignore thoughts of work until the following morning. At least good teachers don't.

I spend the majority of my days (no exaggeration) thinking about how to best reach my students. I'm constantly constructing new and exciting lessons, worrying about whether student A is going to understand the information I am conveying or if student B will be too bored by the lessons. I grow incredibly excited when an idea that I am really proud of comes to fruition (my SWAG 'students with awesome grammar' idea has been one of the best of the year so far!) but also incredibly nervous that the time I spend dedicating my 'free time' to thinking about teaching will all be in vain if the lesson falls to pieces.

In either case, I think new teachers really ought to know this: teaching does not stop at 3:30 when the last bell rings. It is a life consuming profession. I think this truth is indicative of why this profession is also one of the most rewarding; it requires some of the greatest time dedication.

Part time stint

In addition to teaching full time, I am also attending the Teacher's College of Columbia University, where I am working toward a Masters Degree for the Teaching of English. (There are way too many prepositional phrases in that sentence). While going to class a couple of nights each week was initially daunting and incredibly tiresome, I have grown to love the commute into NYC, the excitement of the Big Apple, and the invaluable lessons/experience I'm gaining in my classes.

As a working teacher (most of the students in my program are working toward their initial certification) I am participating in a small seminar in which a group of teachers gather every so often to discuss current issues in the classroom, share experiences and gripes, and come together in a safe and supportive environment. This has been a wonderful venue through which I have met some amazing teachers, the kind who you really remember long after you've graduated and moved on from their class. This small cohort has offered much advice for a novice teacher and I truly thankful that we've been put together. I am hoping that we will continue this seminar throughout the next semester with the same group of teachers (we're currently petitioning to do so).

For each of our class sessions, we have a reading that coincides with the topic. I recently read the article "To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher" by William Ayers. I fell in love. The sort of teaching he describes is quite predominantly a pillar of my educational philosophy. He does not portray his work as a teacher as some magical and life changing experience (you know, the kind where Hillary Swank saves a group of underprivileged students by having them read more books). He does, however, honor the small victories of teaching, and looks to the future of students who have accomplished something great in his class. "No one lived happily ever after--there was no sudden or perfect turnaround for [my student]--but a moment of possibility, a glimmer of what could be for him has remained in my mind" (3). These are the victories I care about as well. The ones where I think to myself, 'perhaps this day will be the day that my student looks back and remember feeling great about what they accomplished.'

Another quote from Ayers reminds me so much of my role(s) as a teacher. I've often described the position as necessitating an ability to wear a number of hats, but Ayers has struck gold with his present progressive laundry list of what teaching is. "Teaching is instructing, advising, counseling, organizing, assessing, guiding, goading, showing, managing, modeling, coaching, disciplining, prodding, preaching, persuading, proselytizing, listening, interacting, nursing, and inspiring" (5). I'd also like to add learning and discovering to the list. Fortunately, I've faced the challenge to do all of these things head on and while my practical experience has been limited, it has certainly been phenomenal.

Room 302

Many experienced teachers will tell you about the difficulties of the dreaded first year of teaching. The long nights of lesson planning, the hours spent grading and correcting student work, the sleepless nights worrying about what you will be teaching the next day, the first time you administer a detention to students, the first year observations, the first time you break the copy machine, the first time yo receive a snarky email from a defensive parent, the first time you run into students outside of school and they look at you like you've sprouted a third arm.

All too often overlooked are the joys of the first year of teaching. The first time a student tells you that your class just made his day, the first time you see a student light up when they've responded to a question correctly, the first time a student asks to stay after school for extra help, the first time parents call to thank you for the help you've given their child, the first time you witness a student's light bulb brighten as they understand a new concept, the first time you stay at school until 9:00 at night because you are just that excited to set up the extra exciting lesson tomorrow, the first time you inspire an innovative thought in a student or witness his or her worldview open to new ideas, the first assembly where you witness a student perform and are amazed at her talent, the first field trip and of course the first summer vacation. I have been focusing on these firsts this so far this year and, needless to say, my first year of teaching has not been the dreaded inferno about which I was warned.

I wake up every day and I am beyond excited to get to school. What new and interesting things will I learn along the journey I go on with my students today, as I lead them through a history lesson about the Bubonic Plague's devastating effect on Europe or the analysis of a classic literary heroine? What compelling questions will my students ask of me? Which students will feign interest during our class period only to forget the most important facts as they leave my class and which students will cling to the lesson and share it at the dinner table with their families?

While I simply will not lie and say that every day has gone exactly according to plan (in fact, most have gone exactly not according to plan, and sometimes that has been for the best) I do love my job very very much. With that, I've decided to start documenting my day, telling my teacher tales. If nothing else, this will provide a consistent venue through which I can share the relentless hilarity and overwhelmingly exciting adventure that is teaching in a Middle School. I do not think that the wonderful things that occur in my classroom, and I'm talking strictly about the wonderful things my students accomplish and learn, ought to be shared in a public setting. This way, when I hear about some of my students going on to change the world, I can look back and say "I was there when you first discovered the 7 rules for using a comma, I even wrote about it! And now look at your publishing your first book" and be proud of the work we accomplish in little room 302.