Chapter 2: First year of teaching. And I thought Institute was hard...
Chapter 3: Second year of teaching. Whole new ball game. Bring it, babies.
Chapter 4: Third year of teaching, first year of teaching in a charter school. World officially rocked. And school hasn't even started yet.
While my parents helped make sure my physical transition to Tennessee was as smooth and comfortable as possible, nothing could have prepared me for the transition into my new job. Not even a 10-day European vacation (more on that in a later post).
I cannot even begin to explain how intense my new school is. It is simplfy off the charts. In a good way. But in a way that requires quite an adjustment on my part, coming from a place where no one had their act together and children got away with everything.
On my first day, I walked into our meeting space (one of the 5th grade classrooms), greeted by the energetic faces and voices of my new coworkers. I was 6 days late because of my trip across the pond, but no one seemed to care. They didn't resent me or treat me any differently, even though they had been working 10 hour days while I was running around Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
On my desk was a 2 inch binder, filled with our professional development materials, tabs labeled by my thoughtful neighbor. We know how I feel about organized binders.
From my first few minutes in the meeting, it was clear that the team not only respects each other as professionals, but loves each other as a family. They enjoy each other's company, joke with each other, and work hard with and for each other and the kids.
That has remained the case these past 10 days or so. Our official workday is from 7 am - 5pm, but most of us are here before 7 and almost everyone stays past 5. And no one goes home empty handed. We all take our computers, plans, etc. with us and work even more. We work Saturdays at least 9 -3, but again most of us are here before and long after that. Simply put, we work our butts off. But it is so much more purposeful this year than the past two I've had. We have plan after plan after plan due, and while the deadlines nearly kill me, they set me and my students up to be successful before they ever even walk through our doors. I already have a vision document, a year long calendar, an outline of my entire curriculum (with the breakdown of knowledge, skills, and activities for each of my 40+ objectives), a Unit Plan, a Unit Assessment, 2 comprehensive exams, and a week of lesson plans. And I'm sure I'm still forgetting something. It hasn't been the most fun process, but it is necessary and so worth it. I have never felt so supported in my two years of teaching as I have these past ten days.
It is incredibly, incredibly challenging, though, to maintain a personal life, similar to my first year teaching. Luckily, I already love the people I work with. There are 12 or so of us, all under the age of 30, all very friendly and outgoing. Last week we did happy hour, and we're on our way to another one tonight. We have staff lunches on Fridays, where the school provides food and we sit around and just be for an hour. Todya we shared stories about our most embarrassing childhood injuries (riding my bike into the back of an 18 wheeler) and our favorite books (Harry Potter and anything Sophie Kinsella). In the process, I discovered 2 other girls who love One Tree Hill as much as I do, and learned a little more about all of my coworkers. But I'm having a hard time balancing my life here with my life outside of Nashville. I've been horrible at calling people, even though I think of at least one new person a day that I want to catch up with. The hardest part is, this pace is going to keep up all year long, so if I don't find a way to balance it now, it's only going to get harder.
So much more to tell, but my brain is fried today. Ready for a drink and some laughter (although we spent a large part of today laughing during team lunch and at various ridiculous things that have happened at sessions). More later (hopefully soon!).
