It Goes a Little Something Like This...

Here’s a quick, but accurate summary of how the year has gone in regards to emotions and sentiments.

August- I’m going to save the entire school from a state take over.

September- I’m tired, but I have to stay in the race to save the whole school from state take over. My kids are very different.

October- I’m tired. I don’t think I can save everyone. For lack of a better term, I think my kids are “slow”. Maybe I’ll just stick to trying to save my kids.

November- Did I miss Thanksgiving Break? When is it already? Can I really save all of my kids? “I think I can, I think I can, I think- I can.” I have to hang in there!

December- Have I really been teaching for three months? Why did they let me in the classroom again? I just need about a week to sleep, a whole week and then I’ll be fine. What’s all the fuss about Benchmarks?

January- I’m back. Things are different. I had soooooooooo much fun over break. I haven’t had this much fun since graduation weekend in May. Teaching has caused me to lose the fun part of my life. I don’t want to go back. Let’s call off sick the first day back to school. What am I going to do next year because it is definitely not teaching?! If I could growl I would. Don’t get me wrong, teaching is nice, but this is no way to live your life, at least mine. I’m exhausted all the time, I never have time to exercise, and I don’t hang out with my friends anymore. On top of all of this, I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately to get my students’ Benchmarks scores up. I only have a little less than four weeks to increase their overall score. Did I mention that I can’t save all of my kids?

February- Okay, this is getting a lot easier. I have been utilizing the Pacing Guide which gives me 1000 topics to teach in four weeks. I’ve managed to teach 12 of the 1000 topics. Apparently, this was just right because my kids increased their scores by 12%. I’m speechless. So are my kids, so is the administration, so is everyone else in the building. We haven’t stopped getting compliments. This is getting a lot better. Especially since my friends and I started the “Let’s Not Become Old Hags in our Twenties” Club. In this club, we force each other to do “undergradish” activities for at least eight hours a week. It’s been working out great. We’re coming up on March and another Benchmark test, the MAP, and the SRI. Let’s see what happens.