so this is the new year.

A few things that have changed in my life with this “new year”:

I have my own classroom, to organize any way I want, with 30 desks and chairs to arrange. I am in charge of plans for 110 students, for 50 minutes, 5 days a week. I control what they are doing and in some ways am forced to entertain them for a class period. I go to endless meetings and seminars. I hear my last name more often than I hear my first name. I am excepted to act normal when my boss, the principal or vice principal come in and sit in the back of my classroom. I have attention getting “strategies” that I use all the time. My alarm goes off at 5:50 every morning and the only day it really bugs me is on Fridays. I call other adults by their last name. I have to answer questions like, “Why do I call you by your last name?” Most of the time I’m not sure of the answer, either. Sometimes I feel like my boss is really a students parent. I say the Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas pledge 5 times a week. I assign homework, give lunch detentions, let students know how disappointed I am in them, and try to figure out what is going is going on in students home life. I see students more than some of their parents do. I have students who are dying for my attention and approval. I have students that feel like I don’t spend enough time on them. I feel like I don’t spend enough time on any of my students. I have to be prepared to lead at least 25 kids out of a building during any kind of drill. I boss people around all day. I spend time reading 12 year olds favorite moments, or childhood memories. I go to meetings where I am never sure what’s being said. I spend almost all my time with 12/13 year old kids, laughing at their jokes, trying to get them to like reading, trying to have them understand directions, trying to improve their writing and trying to get them to be better people. And I’m enjoying almost every single moment of it. Even through the office referrals, the disrespect, the funny moments, the days when I’m unprepared. All those moments and days, I still get to care about 110 kids and their lives.