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.