Quickly Winding Down

Can you believe it? It went that fast? Where did it all go? It's Memorial Day, and I'm sitting here enjoying the day off. All of a sudden, it hits me. There are only two and half days left of my first year of teaching. 2 & 1/2. That's unbelievable to me. I can remember going to my first week of inservice like it was yesterday. I was so nervous and anxious to get started. Before I knew it, our first activity was to dress up like clowns because you know, we are the Greatest Show on Earth. All I'm thinking about at this point was the daunting task that is your first year of teaching. People always say that it's going to be the most stressful year, and that you're going to be so busy. I was worried about it, but I was ready to take it head on.

I'm sitting here now, and that daunting task called your first year of teaching is pretty much over. Ten months came and went like a flash. I'm seriously at a lost for words. Probably not the best for writing a blog post ;)

I just wanted to kind of quickly reflect on the year as a whole. I won't go into details right now because that sappy post is coming later after this week is over (I can be nostalgic). 

One of the things we always hear about in college is how busy your first year of teaching will be. I heard that it's going to be so stressful, you're barely have time for anything else, & it's going to be hard, etc. I don't really remember anyone telling me that it's going to be awesome. That being a first year teacher is great! I didn't hear that. I feel like the mindset going in is to "survive". I didn't want to just survive. I wanted to enjoy my first year, and I wanted to make an impact on kids! I think I've done that. 

I'm very fortunate and blessed with my situation. I work at an incredible school. I have outstanding team made up of 3 of the best teachers I'ver ever met. Seriously, I would put our 4th grade team up against 4th grade team in the district as being one of the best. That's in large part to the incredible ladies that I work with. I also have an amazing supporting cast: my team, principal, family, and my students. I got lucky. I really did. All the more reason to work my butt off to be the best teacher I could be. 

With all that being said, it's not like I didn't have stressful times this year. Of course I did. I was still a first year teacher. Not to sound cocky, but I don't think I was as stressed out and worried about everything as much as most first year teachers are. My mindset throughout the whole year was that I was going to put forth my best effort in everything that I did, and that I wasn't going to dwell on everything that went wrong. There's no sense in worrying about something that is out of your control. That was huge to me. 

It takes a lot of work to be a teacher. Way more than anyone can imagine. If you've never taught before, you really can't fully understand all of the stuff that we have to do. It's way more than just teaching kids math. That's not even half of it. Teaching is such an incredibly important profession. Everyone of us has teachers that have impacted his or her life. My first year of teaching is wrapping up quickly. All I can is that I'm so excited for what's to come! I hope that I made a lasting (positive) impact on these first group of kiddos. Bring on the next group! Well... bring them on after summer ;)