In two days, I go back to school for my second semester of teaching. Crazy. I can not believe that I have been teaching for 4 months! I told myself that before I go back, I wanted to sit down and reflect on my the past couple of months.
Many of you know that I have wanted to be a teacher all my life- seriously, since I was like 5. I was the nerd that had her own school room (the storage closest in our garage) and I taught to my stuffed Disney characters, pretending like they were my students. I used to get extra worksheets from my 5th grade teacher so I would have work for my class. My big brother would sometimes play along too and would be the principal.
Now that I am almost 23 and have my very own classroom at Horn Lake Middle School and I teach to REAL 7th graders, many people have asked me is it all that I thought it would be?
I can honestly say it is. Don't get me wrong, teaching 7th graders is hard many days. The thing I have been disappointed in the most is the fact that I have not been able to build deep relationships with my students. I always knew that being a teacher meant that I was the teacher and THEY were the students, and that they were going to know that. I have learned with my kids that if I make the SLIGHTEST joke with them, they think we are going to party all class. Finding that balance has been difficult, and I know one day (many teaching years later, I'm sure) I will find the key.
My favorite thing about being a teacher is seeing it (math, life lessons, etc.) CLICK! When I compare some of my students math scores from last year against their scores from the previous 2 nine weeks test, it makes my heart smile because they have grown, some a little and some ALOT! When I see that, I know that it is not me teacher, but Christ in me teaching. I have also enjoyed teaching them a little about who they hang out with. We have a saying around my classroom "Bad company corrupts good morals" Alot of them have little to no idea what that means, but maybe by May!
If you want to see a visual on how much my children do (or do not) like me see pictures below.
During Thanksgiving, the students could buy feathers for their favorite teacher. The teacher with the most feathers got a turkey.
Here is my turkey...
Pretty good, right? Well here is the teacher across the hall from me turkey..
And she wasn't even the one who won!! The teacher who won had like 450 feathers.
Just reminding myself I am not there to be their friend, but their teacher! But hopefully at least some of my students like me.
Also before Thanksgiving, we had a Faculty vs. Faculty basketball game.Yes, I did play in it, and no I am not good at basketball. I did score 4 points for the 7th grade team though! Woop Woop.
7th grade teachers ended up winning the tournament!
Anyway, I could seriously sit here for hours and tell the good, bad, and ugly about teacding, but aint nobody got time for that.
When Wednesday comes, I will wake up with a smile on my face, thankful for the job that I have!
