I had all winter break to get my mind ready to work with this young people. It was the winter break of the 2010-2011 school year when I found out I will be working with 7th graders. All of these kids knew me as a substitute. I'm sure when I walk they'll just think that their teacher was absent. The principal walked me in and said, "This is your new teacher!" This was all too shocking. I couldn't believe this day was finally here. I had 26 pairs of eyes just looking at me. I've never really lesson planned or dealt with all the behind the scenes stuff teachers do. As a sub, you're given an assignment for the kids to do that day. There's nothing else past that. Now I have to look at the big picture, that final picture. I think coming in mid year was very tough but very helpful. This half year let me see how the previous teacher had set things up, some good and some bad. But every day I was learning about things I should do to prepare for the following year and how I wanted things to be set up.
After this first half year, I was asked to move to 8th grade math. As my kids went to 8th, so did I. The kids did see a change in my structure from the half year to the beginning of my first full year. I was able to plan a bit better, know where kids were from the beginning, and got to know the several personalities. My first year can be described as crazy, fun, frustrating, exciting, and stressful. Being a teacher is way more than just teaching. Overcoming that challenge makes it rewarding.
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