As I type this reflection, the past week and a half swirls through my head. It’s Thursday evening and I have not even had my 18 third grade students for a week so far. The past week has been nonstop. My feet hit the ground and I have not stopped running, planning, decorating, or smiling.
I think about all the emotions I have experienced in the past week and many of those emotions are still fresh. The excitement, nerves and butterflies, frustration, tiredness of working 12 hours a day, and being anxious to get started still overwhelm to this day. Part of me hopes it never goes away because it shows that I am continuing to grow and learn as an educator.
I think about the adjustments I have had to make from going unemployed, not even sure if I wanted to teach this year to being put in a third grade workroom with less than a week to prepare for my classroom full of kids with very little material. I also think about the adjustments my students have made and how well they have done the past week. They went from getting attached to one third grade teacher to being moved into a new class with new classmates and a first year teacher who deep down was just as nervous and scared as they were this time last week. Now we have built relationships with each other and continuing to learn from one another. Our classroom is finally beginning to form into “Ms. C’s Mini-Class.”
I think about how amazing the staff and employees at Roebuck Elementary has been. Since the first time I stepped foot into my old stomping grounds, constant smiles, hugs, help, and encouragement has been offered. From the principals and assistant principals stepping in to make sure my needs are met to the teachers giving me supplies and helping me decorate my mini classroom to the custodians who are there until 7:00 with me reminding me that a door will be unlocked for me to leave when I’m ready. Who could forget my amazing team of third grade teachers? Instant bonds have been formed with them over lunch and after school conversations that included chocolate that I have stored in my classroom. I always felt welcomed to Roebuck Elementary when I was a student there, but this is a different welcome. This is a “Welcome! You’re part of the Roebuck Staff now!” A week later and I’m still having staff and teachers stop by to offer help and welcome me to the school. They have made the transition so much smoother than I ever expected.
I think about all the things I have learned at Winthrop and how I am going to put them into effect. I think about the teaching techniques I should use and strategies I need to implement into my classroom. Performing my best as a teacher has been instilled in me for the last four years of my education career. My desire to achieve that yearns daily as I prepare lessons and materials. I think about my wonderful professors I miss so much and think, “If Dr. Norton was in here watching me read to my students, would he approve? If Dr. Evers saw me teaching this lesson, would she give me an A for my variations of teaching so that I’m accommodating all learners? If Dr. Ingram were in here, would he tell me I should be sterner with my students? And if Dr. McNulty were here, would she tell me I need to make more time and activities for my South Carolina social studies lessons?” I am no longer writing out plans and turning them into to be graded. I now have actual students that I have to actually teach so that they can learn information so that they will perform well on MAP and PACT testing to prove that I covered all standards (not that I do not have enough to do already).
I also think about the future. I constantly think about what the end of next week is going to look like (and what I’m going to look like), the end of the first 6 weeks of grades, the end of the semester, and the end of the year. Are my students going to love me or are they going to hate me? Are they going to walk away more knowledgeable or are they going to walk away confused? Will all the copy machines ever work consistently? I wonder if I’ll ever cover all six subjects in one day with enough time to go to two specials and have a 30-minute recess? I wonder if I’ll still be at Roebuck Elementary next year with the desire to continue to teach? But I constantly have to remind myself, “Inch by inch is a cinch. Yard by yard is hard.” I have to live in the moment and make each day the most of it for me and for my students. I have to remind myself that lessons aren’t going to be perfect and something just might go wrong—and that’s ok. There’s always another day.
At the end of a crazy day like today I sit down at my desk of craziness that includes newsletters, homework, notes, and two cups of sweet tea and I laugh. I look around my mini classroom to see the snacks left on the counter, pencils on the floor, scribbles on the board, and I enjoy the quietness. I tell myself, “Welcome to third grade Ms. C. You have arrived!” And I cannot wait till the next day to see what new adventures hold for us in Workroom 3 at Roebuck Elementary.
