True story: three years ago I went to my previous principal and practically begged for a change in assignment. I rarely spoke with this man who never once stepped foot in my classroom, but at this moment, I frankly told him that while I felt that I was beginning to stagnate as a teacher. The challenges of my first couple years in the classroom had long since been left behind, and the challenges of running my highly specialized special education classroom were pretty firmly under control. By that time I had come to the realization that, fortunately enough, I had turned into a good teacher. Unfortunately, increasing mandates about the use of scripted curricula, testing burdens, and paperwork were wearing me down. As I reached the end of my sixth year as an educator, I knew that I needed new challenges to grow in my teaching skill.
I was pretty good, but I wanted to be great.
This request fell on deaf ears for the following two years, which made it much less sad for me to leave that job for a new school than it otherwise could have been.
So here I sit a week after the conclusion of my first year in a new district, with a completely new role, with a different age group, in a completely different state. I wanted change, and now I have it.
How did it turn out? Pretty fantastic.
I love my job. Love it. I love that I get to work with so many different students and really feel like a part of the larger school community instead of my tiny bubble. I love that I get to work with so many teachers who truly seem to care about children. I love that get some of them to try using technology for the very first time, and that I get to push others to extend their use of technology and introduce them to the latest tools. I love that I have a whole set of supportive administrators that let me try out all sorts of new stuff because they actually trust me to do what’s best for the students and teachers I work with. I love the youngest students in a way that I would have a hard time fathoming after spending eight years in middle school. I love working with students of widely varying levels of skills and trying to find activities that fit all of their needs. I love seeing my students take over instruction in the classroom, creating a domino effect where one student teaches another student how to do something, who then shows it to another, until the whole class has worked it out sometimes without me even explaining how to do it in the first place.
I love the pictures the kids draw for me.
Did I do a perfect job this year? Don’t be ridiculous. I have so much to improve upon. Only in the second half of the year felt like I really started to hit my groove in planning the lessons. I did a terrible job at communicating and planning with some teachers. I didn’t learn all of the students’ names. I didn’t complete every task that was asked of me. I bent for teachers when I should have stood more firmly for better use of technology. I did things for teachers and students at times when I should have taught them how to do those things for themselves. I scheduled myself poorly, having some weeks with very little interaction with others and other weeks forgetting to schedule lunch for myself.
I completely botched my final lesson of the year.
I have room to grow, and that’s incredibly exciting to me. Thanks to my full summer I have plenty of chances to work on some of those things, but I should also have free time to myself to mentally prepare myself for the other ones.
I’m so thankful for the opportunity to teach in one of the most exciting public school districts in the country. I’m thankful that my wife convinced me to move to Massachusetts so that I have that opportunity. I’m thankful to my principal for hiring me and supporting me throughout the year, offering advice when I needed it and giving me the autonomy to figure things out on my own when I didn’t. I’m thankful to my superintendent for supporting his hiring decision and always speaking with me directly and honestly about his vision for our schools and what he sees as my role in them. I’m thankful to my mentor for helping me survive those perilous first months of the year and for supporting me in my most ambitious project of the entire year. I’m thankful to all of the wonderful teachers in my school who pushed me and supported me and challenged me to be better, who opened up to me and asked for help when they needed it, and allowed me to do so in turn. I’m thankful to all of the wonderful teachers I’ve had the good fortune of getting to know on Twitter and at Edcamps and EduCon, because without them I’d not have this wonderful job or grown even half as much in the past three years.
I’m thankful for my new home.
I have so much to do and learn and see and grow. But in this moment at the end of an incredibly successful school year, I am so happy. I’ve grown so much as a teacher this year, and have pushed myself in ways I didn’t expect. I’m a much better teacher today than I was 12 months ago, but I’m not a great teacher yet.
Yet.
