It’s halfway
through my time here at North Kingston High School and I cannot believe how
quickly it has gone, and how much fun I have been having, and there is a slew
of things on my mind at this point.
I am still
continuously impressed with the simplicity of this idea: every day is a new day. As each day progresses, some better than
others, I have found that this line has become my mantra all of its own accord.
While I may be over-scrutinizing my last lessons blubber about “___________”
(fill in the blank), they’ve already forgotten it by the time they walk out the
door. And get this; there are mini days all within one day. The next period is
a new start, a chance to re-do something I may have not liked, or that hadn’t
gone as I’d first planned.
On a daily
basis I am inspired throughout the day to be better than I was yesterday, to “always
do my best” even though I am tired and slightly stressed. You put on a face and
don’t show it. Teachers are truly master performers. An acrobat swinging
through the air, we perform a certain “routine.”
I am continuously
breaking it down. Each and every day I’m getting better at break dancing. Kidding.
But seriously, though every lesson I create I see how it can be better, how
adding or subtracting components streamline it to flow better. How when
students don’t come back with what I want, it’s because I didn’t give enough
direction. How in every lesson I observe I see the outlining “I do, we do, you
do” really work its magic.
I am
exciting to have hit this point, but even more excited for the time still ahead
of me that allows me with the opportunity to ever improve.
Faith I love reading what you have to say, you are always to postive! Your right every lesson is like a new start. My lessons for my tenth grade class are always awesome I love their class so I am like on a high when they leave and then my twelfth grade class walks in and my lessons have been hit or miss so at the end of that class I am ready for a "new day" to begin sometimes.
ReplyDeleteFaith: I love reading what you have to say, too! And I love the idea of mini days within days. Teaching is truly a job where you get second and third and fourth chances at things, more than once to get it right. Which is fortunate because, most times, we don't get it right the first time. My friends and I used to have a saying at the end of every day of high school teaching, "Well, there's always tomorrow." Because there is. And that's a beautiful thing, as you point out. I also love the way you notice nuance in the work of a teacher; how a teacher needs to be "fine tuned" into herself and into her students, into her context and environment, into her content and "doing." There's so much dancing that we do, Faith! You'll be dancing for the rest of your life (which reminds me of the story of your parents meeting at the school of dance...)
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