As the final bell rang yesterday, all the feels hit me. Yet another year has come to a close all too quickly. Don't get me wrong, I am as ready, if not more ready, for summer, for relaxation, for vacation, for less stress, as anyone else. I'm ready to have a life outside of being Ms. Golden the math teacher; however, as I heard the students rush down the hall after that final bell, I began to reflect on this school year and all that it has entailed. To say the least, this school year has been a challenge. Year four has been the biggest challenge that I've ever had in my four years in the classroom. From some of the most challenging (but most in need of love) students, to the pressures of full-time grad school and full-time teaching, to the responsibilities of serving with my church, to just trying to balance having a life in general, there were several instances where I felt like this year was going to be the death of me or at least the end of my teaching career. However, by the grace of God and through His guidance, I have survived, and now I'm standing on the other side of year four looking forward to year five. As I am reflecting upon this year, I wanted to take note of the many many things that this challenging, but amazing year has taught me.
So, here it goes.. What I've learned-- Year Four:
1) Mistakes are necessary for progress.
"Failure is success in progress."
Albert Einstein
This could quite possibly be the biggest, yet the most ironic lesson that I've learned this year. You see, all school year, I have "preached" to my students about the power of having a growth mindset and believing that you can improve and grow your brain, especially through making mistakes. This has become my soapbox throughout the school year. However, time and time again, as I was teaching a class and things did not go as I had planned or as my students' disruptive behavior became an issue, or I compared my scores/data to other teachers' scores/data, I bought into the lie that maybe I wasn't cut out for teaching after all. Maybe I was okay when I had the comfortable situation in Grenada, but I could never make it in a real classroom. Yet, I was still encouraging my students day in and day out to focus on the process and focus on improvement over time and not just a single moment of success or failure-- all while I was focusing on my own failures and short-comings. It wasn't until very recently when a precious student reminded me that failure is necessary for progress that it hit me square between the eyes-- this year was progress. While it may have been a year filled with mistakes and times that I have longed for a do-over or two, I have learned more in year four than I have in my previous three years combined, and, the most ironic part is that I've learned these valuable lessons-- not because I succeeded in my every endeavor or because I was hailed as this amazing, all-star teacher, but because I messed up, I got knocked down, I struggled, but I learned. And, as I've told my students so many times this school year, "Learning isn't easy.. embrace struggle and grow!"
2) Every day is a new day and the perfect time for a fresh start.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
Lamentations 3:21-24
His mercies are new every morning. My, oh my, how I have needed this reminder throughout this entire school year. In a year filled with, as I stated before, the need for more do-overs and apologies than ever before, I am so thankful that the Lord's mercies are new every morning. I have also learned the power of apologizing (
3) No man is an island.
"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives."
Robert John Meehan
When I left Grenada, I left one of the most supportive, tight-knit, collaborative team that exists. We worked as a unit-- on everything. We had truly mastered the art of collaboration and getting the work done and doing what was best for our students. We worked hard day in and day out for the good of our students, and we managed to take three different teaching styles and create lessons that allowed all students to learn in our individual classrooms. Then.... someone had to go and mess it all up by moving to Oxford (No idea who that might be. Haha). So, when I moved, there was an immediate feeling of being on an island all alone-- new town, new grade, new colleagues. However, I quickly learned that I was not alone by any means. OMS has a PLC period built into the teachers' schedules where we have a department meeting every day. Meeting with the entire math department every day for an entire school year has built a sense of community and collaboration within our grade-level team and within the math department as a whole that I am so glad to be a part of. We discuss plans, we vent frustrations, we share happy moments, we scour the data, we problem solve, but most of all, we support each other. I have no doubt that these five people have my back,
4) Sometimes the students that are the hardest to love, need my love the most.
"If kids come to use from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important."
Barbara Colorose
Until this school year, I would have told you that I understood the importance of the above statement, yet, in reality, I had no idea. While I've taught students that have come from some challenging home situations before this school year, I have not had the influx and large majority of "hard to love" students that are not necessarily from the ideal family situation. This year, I learned the importance of looking past others' perceptions of a student, putting all other opinions and previous experiences to the side, and simply focusing on the needs of the student and how those needs could be met in order to learn most effectively. If those needs include having a snack, I learned the value of having snacks on hand. If the needs include an emotional breather in the hallway, I've learned to allow the student to step out and take a breath. Y'all, seventh grade is tough. Life as a seventh grader is crazy, out-of-control, confusing, yet we expect them to put all of this craziness to the side and focus on math, English, social studies, science, ICT, and everything else for 8 hours everyday and to do it all quietly?! Oh man, that's asking a lot of such a little, confused person whose wants and desires on anything but academics. So, moral of the story? They have need to learn, so how do we combat the seventh grade crazies? We meet them where they are. We venture into the craziness, we address it, and we create a learning environment that best meets the needs of the students and allows them to flourish and to learn! While it has truly taken me all 180 days of the school year to learn this lesson, I now know that with a little patience and whole lot of love, any student can be successful.
In closing, year four, it's been real. It's been fun. And I guess you could even say that it's been real fun. Here's to 2 more work days, then a relaxing summer vacation filled with reading good books, travel, sleeping late, and all of the Netflix binges that I can possibly take! Year five, I see you, and I'm ready... well, not yet... but gimme two months, then I got you!
