Strive For Greatness

It’s the fourth week of my first summer vacation as a teacher, and I have learned two things.

1. I definitely needed a break. Teachers deserve a break, and I am thoroughly enjoying the chance to sit back and relax a little.
2. I already miss it. I miss my kiddos, my team, my co-workers. I miss all of it.

I miss waking up at 6:04 everyday to get ready. I miss the Chick-fil-la drive thru to get my Dr. Pepper that helps get me ready for the day. I miss kiddos walking in and and saying hello. I miss working with the students and my team members. I miss it all. I’m crazy right? It hasn’t even been four weeks yet. How can I miss it so much? It’s simple really. I love what I do.

I haven’t posted in awhile, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to talk about. If you are choosing to read this post, I greatly appreciate it. There’s a good amount weighing on my mind, and I just want to talk about a little bit of it.

The thing that I miss the most are my students. Were they starting to drive me a little crazy there at the end? Yes. Was I starting to drive my students a little crazy at the end? Probably. It’s been a little over three weeks, and I haven’t seen any of them. To say I miss them is an understatement. They’re the reason I get up everyday and go to work. They’re the reason that I and teachers everywhere work so hard for! Our job is to shape young minds and help them grow and mature. In the summer, there’s no kids. I wake up everyday, and there’s nothing to do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying the break, but I feel like I’m lacking a sense of purpose. During the school year, I had 80+ kiddos depending on me, and in the summer, I don’t. It’s a weird feeling. I think about my students all the time, and I miss them. I only hope that some of them miss me too. That’s the impact we want to leave behind isn’t it?

An extremely close second on the list of things I miss: my team. I don’t know if you know, but I had a phenomenal team. We rocked. I may be biased, but you have to be your biggest fan. I couldn’t have asked for a better team for my first year of teaching. We worked so great together, and I loved everyday I got to spend with them. I just miss being at school with them and collaborating together. Those three ladies are incredible teachers, and they’re some of the best in the district. I would argue that with anybody!

Our team for next school year is going to look a little different. AB retired, and I hope that she is taking full advantage of being retired and enjoying every single day. She definitely deserves it, but it’s safe to say she will be severely missed. But.. I am incredibly excited for our new team member. I haven’t had too many interactions with her, but from I have had, she seems incredible too. I’m excited about what next year will bring for our team, and I can’t wait to start working with her. I’ve already heard so many great ideas from her, and she’s pretty hilarious as well. I think she’s going to be awesome!

I was asked a few days ago, “What is your favorite part of your job?” I thought about it for a second. I feel like a lot of people would say teaching the kids and watching them grasp that super hard concept, or watching them grow in the classroom and become better students. Not me. Now I love watching my students understand a new math concept (like long division). But, my favorite part of the job is what I like to call the “Mr. Trevor” part of my job. I LOVE all of the informal time that I get to spend with the kids. That could be a ton of things. It could be talking with the students in the hallway in between classes, when I grab the microphone at lunch, and they would all yell for me to start singing, interacting with them at recess, or seeing them at the talent show or Chili Cook Off. Any chance that I got to spend with my kiddos outside of the classroom that’s what I love. I love building relationships with all of my Ss. All of those opportunities are when the students can be themselves, and I just love getting to spend time with them. I still love helping my Ss become better learners, and I love teaching them math. But I love interacting with them when the pressures of learning standards aren’t at the forefront of their minds.

I just finished up a book study for the book Teach Like A Pirate. It’s all about ways that you can improve your classroom, and make it exciting for you, your students, and colleagues. I found the book to be very useful. One of the things that really stuck with me was to always strive for greatness in the classroom. Teaching requires a great passion and enthusiasm for working with kids in order to be successful, but it also takes an incredible amount of hard work. I can’t just wake up and wing it. I have to work at it, and I’ll always have to work at it. Last year when I started, I had nothing. I had no 4th grade math lessons, worksheets, or projects. You name it, and I didn’t have it. I had to come up with everything as the year went on. It was a lot of work. Now going into my second year, I have all of that stuff that I used last year. I could do the same thing I did last year, and it might be successful. But I’m already licking my chops to improve on what I did last year. I want to make it all better and more successful. I want to be a great teacher. I know I’m not the only one. I doubt any teacher does anything the same way year in and year out. But, I’m so excited and ready to get back to work to improve on what I did last year. There were things that I did last year that rocked, but there were also things that kind of bombed (stupid fractions…). I can’t wait to make it all better, but I can’t do it alone and without a little bit of hard work.

I’m excited at the prospect of what my second year of teaching will bring. I’m ready for a new group of kiddos to work with, and I hope they’re excited to work with me. My old kiddos better come back to visit because you know I’m going to be bugging them and their big bad 5th grade selves. I’m excited to work with a new team and to see everyone that I work with. We should all strive for greatness, and it’s okay to be a little crazy in the process.

If you’re still reading, you’re a trooper. I’m curious as to who reads this far, so if you are still reading… Tell me who your favorite superhero is in the comments. (If you want lol)

Mine is the Hulk.