Looks like I made it...

I am a recovering Barry Manilow fan, it's true. As opposed to his song title, "Looks Like WE Made It", which suggests a story of two people who helped each other get over their shared romance, my title suggests that I made it through my first year of teaching!!! My time this year was not easy, but after hearing other's horror stories I know it could have been much, much worse. Teaching at my alma mater proved to be weird on a regular basis, but I kept the pesky voices of the past at bay by being extremely busy. Not having a clue what you are doing 90% of the time can really keep you hopping. All the teacher-types tell me next year will be so much better, but it will take about three years to really feel like I know what I'm doing. I'm kind of hoping against ever really feeling like I know what I'm doing - that would just encourage my tendency to stop relying on the One who really keeps this whole thing moving to begin with. I had wonderful mentors and an extremely generous staff who would help me in times of panic.

I can't help feeling that I need to send out apology letters to my first year students. I think many of them suspected my novice status - perhaps it was that stricken look of fear that I would occasionally give when things didn't go like I thought they would. About once a week a student would ask me how long I had been teaching. I never really lied...but I definitely included my student teaching experience and all those years as a Young Life leader in my pathetic attempts to answer that question. I also had similar aversion techniques in answering questions like, "What year did you graduate?" and "How old ARE you?" I think the general consensus was that I graduated in the late 90's and I am now somewhere in my mid-20's. God Bless those kids!!

As expected from coming out of a youth ministry background, discipline was the hardest area for me to get a handle on. I take solace in scripture which describes discipline as form of love. I'm not afraid to discipline kids, but it is certainly not my favorite thing to do. Mostly, I hated giving detention. There has got to be a better way of discplining a kid than having them show up after school (when all I really want to do is finally go to the bathroom and go home) and sit in my room and stare at the walls. If I could make them do it I would force them to scrape all the gum off the bottoms of the desks, but there is sure to be law against that. So we sit there while I try to get whatever grading I have done and the kid either trying to fall asleep or attempting to mentally make time go faster by staring at the clock on the wall. Maybe next year I'll make them memorize poetry...that'll get them to behave in class!

All in all it was a great year...Teacher Orientation, pre-planning, panic, Open House, panic, Homecoming Pep Rally cotton candy eating contest, Katrina fundraising, I Love Lucy for Halloween,panic, stomach flu, Christmas break, whew, 2nd semester,having more of a clue, visit to Colorado, having to find a sub for three days, panic, research projects, grading, more grading, panic subsiding, Spring Break, more grading, Powder Puff victory, Prom, Graduation...nine weeks of bliss, then I get to do it all over again!