This Teaching Thing

Back in June I was nervous. I had heard how tough summer school was and I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Once I was immersed in the grind of my summer schedule, I realized that it wasn't that hard to run on no sleep, and while I wasn't very good at teaching yet, I felt that I could get the hang of it soon enough.  By the end of summer school, I had gotten more confident, but as the two weeks before real school slipped away, I started downright dreading it. It seemed like so much. It seemed nearly impossible. It seemed like it wasn't worth it.

I put off my departure from Ohio for as long as possible. I ended up leaving at 4:00 am the Wednesday before professional development - Monday. I got to Byhalia around 1 pm, and oddly, as soon as I walked into the school, my nerves eased. I walked into my classroom for the first time, saw the pile of old books, stacked desks, a garbage left by the previous teacher, and instead of getting even more overwhelmed, I got excited. Maybe it's my competitive nature, but by the end of the day, it looked like a classroom. I had sanitized every desk... twice. I included two pictures of my room at the end of day one.

The view from the back of the room

The view from my desk toward the right side of the room

Since then things have really been good. Of course I've had bad days. It wouldn't be natural if I hadn't. I'm new at this, so I take everything with a grain of salt. Sorry to throw a cliche at you. I don't expect things to be perfect, and I think that has kept me sane. My mindset now is so much better than it was before I started. I really enjoy my kids. They make me laugh a lot. Even in situations like today, when I wanted to get angry at one of my students, I couldn't help but just stand up there and laugh. He was being funny! I'm sorry, Teacher Corps, if it is not recommended to show your cards like that. I'm sure I should have given him a consequence. But I
have to stop and enjoy myself (or my students) at least once daily.

So has this been easier or harder than I thought? Easier. So far.