all my life

Let it be said that I love school and school things. It seems my whole life I've always wanted to be a teacher. For a short period of time I dabbled with psychology (still love it) but teaching is where my passion lies. The built in breaks don't hurt but there's just something magical about watching a little person go from not getting it to getting it. You can literally see the light bulb come on. It's awe inspiring to see a 6 or 7 year old and the things they're able to do.

This year has been a year to say the least. I have some very "good friends" and I'll let you in on a secret...when a teacher calls a student a "good friend" it usually means they drive them nuts all day every day. That "good friend" is the kid you pray is absent but of course never is...ever. They are the one kid who never gets sick despite an outbreak of hacking coughs and runny noses and sneezes that cover every inch of the room and manage to infect a person 3 classrooms away. I have a few "good friends" this year. They are definitely giving me a run for my money. Its' probably more fair to say that this class as a whole is giving me a run for my money. This year I live for breaks like I never have. For instance, we just got back from our winter break...seriously today was the 7th day back and already we have a 3 day weekend. I couldn't be more joyous for Friday to roll around. I often leave for home feeling exhausted and defeated. Things in the district are horrendous and seem to get more and more horrendous by the day. I could be on welfare and make more money than I do as a 3rd year teacher with a college degree. It's true..I've done the math. I'm asked to go above and beyond my job description every day and of course I do because deep down and on the surface (most days) I genuinely love my job. What keeps me from calling it quits is the excitement I get when I step back and reevaluate where I'm coming from and decide that maybe I need to try another way. That excitement lets me know that yes I can carry on and I still believe that this is my calling.

I get so excited to let my inner nerd (maybe not so inner) out and find some new great thing to try in my classroom. I'm so excited to get my new behavior management system up and running this weekend (it already uses some of what I do now) and I'm excited to do some research over the summer (yes I said research and summer in the same sentence) on The Daily 5 because the thought of doing centers for another year makes me want to hang out with my "good friends" all day.