109 days. 26 students. This year brought a lot of changes to what I know about being a teacher. In a lot of ways, it was harder than I ever thought it would be. But these kids brought me happiness in a time when I thought it was lost. I'm really glad I met them, and I'm sad our time is over.
After five months searching for a job, I heard from Nash-Rocky Mount Schools that they were finally ready to hire me as a second grade teacher at Spring Hope Elementary. I had interviewed SEVEN WEEKS earlier to be the fourth 2nd grade teacher so class sizes could be smaller. But wait a minute - because plans had changed. The push for a fourth teacher had been denied by Central Office and I was now filling a vacancy that arose when one of the three 2nd grade teachers had left for another school five weeks ago. Not only did I already have my own class, which I wasn't expecting, but I was supposed to be teaching them tomorrow. No substitute was scheduled. I had 23 students, and very suddenly they were all my responsibility. Just like that. I didn't even know what time school started.
Three days later, I was IN and had learned a lot - when school started and ended, the names of the students (although I was still working on remembering the duplicates and two of the girls who I really wanted to have each other's names), the log in for the computer, the names of important staff members (the office staff and the grade level staff, to name a few), but also, that for the majority of the class, I was their FIFTH teacher this year. 23 students - and 18 had had four teachers before me. 4 had had another teacher before all of those, making me number SIX. (The last had transferred in, and only had 3 before me.) SIX TEACHERS?! It's only the 12th week of school. How are they ever going to learn if they don't even have a consistent teacher?
In all of this, I found something that was completely shocking - they were a good class. It was day 3, and I had the entire class in the hallway eating snack, and it was dead silent. Not quite as like when you're alone in a room and not making any noise, but so quiet that I heard every chip crunch. No one was talking, and I thought, wow, in all of this mess, look at this class!
When I joined SHES, I entered a classroom that had only had substitutes for 5 weeks. It could have been a disaster. But it wasn't. I had two grade level teammates who did everything they could to support my class when there was no teacher - from writing lesson plans for the substitute, to giving up their time with the shared 2nd grade assistant so she could support my class, and even to adding the lowest students from my class to their guided reading groups so they got more help. My entire year was made miles and miles easier by Denise and Denise, despite how messed my head was after I found out both of their first names are Denise.
I faced a lot of difficulties in the part of the year I spent at SHES, beyond just joining mid-year. I had staff children in my class for the first time this year, I served my first ESL student (who moved back to the US for the school year!), I assisted in identifying students, and learned all about 504 plans and how they are used to accommodate students, as I had my first there too. But also, this was my third year in the classroom, which meant I was in my final year as a Beginning Teacher (NC's BT program is 3 years) and I had to make sure all my requirements were set so I could receive my continuing license.
It's only been 109 days. I probably spent over 170 days with my other two classes. And sure, I left Perquimans with great memories of them from both year 1 - like when A stuck their face in my jacket pocket during recess because they were cold, or when K spelled their name correctly for the first time, or the joy a group of them received from a cup tower they built, or how brotherly D was to the new kid in February - and also from year 2 - like T treating S to a new experience, or when C got to hold a baby chick, and when H stuck everyone's name tag to them during end of the year cleanup, or every time we played the partner version of their favorite math game.
But this year's kids have probably shown me more. They taught me how to show confidence, and they taught me how I can be fair. They reminded me to laugh, and that it's okay to be wrong (the number of times I wrote planets instead of plants is shocking). 26 kids, from 26 or 109 days together, and they each had something to share. One in particular impacted me so much that I literally cried saying goodbye to this kid. I've got tears just thinking about it now. I wish I could share the story, but I don't want to break that privacy wall so I'm not going to. But you never know what's going on. Don't judge the book, or the person, by the cover when it's the inside that matters. Life's too short to sweat the small stuff. That's what I learned.
P.S. You know what else I learned? Don't put all the kids with the same name in the same class. There are 6 sets of duplicate or triplet names in the grade. (Meaning two kids named Chris, or three kids named Joe, etc.) How many sets did I have? 5. I only had one of the remaining set, not both. But yes, 14 kids who had the same first name as someone else in the grade, and 10 were mine. I suppose I could also be grateful I only had two of three Chris-es and two of three Joe-s instead of all three (names have been changed). The crazy part? I worked with Denise and Denise. Even crazier? Denise #1 had all 4 of the duplicate names I didn't have. Denise #2 had none. Sometimes, I loved this crazy year. Other times, a visitor at the door would ask for Chris and they'd both stare at me like I knew who they wanted and I couldn't get past whoever placed this class together.
No comments:
Post a Comment