A Note of Thanks

It’s hard being a first-year teacher. Simply put, it’s freakin’ exhausting. I mean like, bone-dead, whole-body-hurts, can’t-think-straight kinda tired. Somehow between making the decision to become a teacher and going through all the crazy training and preparation that this Certification Year has set up for me, my brain has turned to mush and I can’t seem to find the energy to rescue it.

I’m tired.

And what’s worse, it sucks to feel so isolated. I mean, you’re not only the new kid on the block at the new job, you’re also a brand new teacher who doesn’t know so much, who’s trying to feel her way through what sometimes feels like a literal jungle of gossip and criticism and people waiting to see just how much you really don’t know… and very few people put forth the effort to check up on you.

It’s like they somehow forget what their first year was like, what they went through, how they felt. It’s like they feel that, if they had to suffer through it alone, well… so do you. I see now such a rich opportunity for teachers who have been in the field for a long time (or even several years) to reach back to that first-year teacher on their hallway or in their learning community, and let them know they’re really not alone and that things really will get better.

Because, there are soooo many days when it feels like they won’t.

I wish I was on a hallway or location where there were other new teachers. Other people who are also going through their first year, who are also trying to learn the how-to’s and who could come together and help each other. Instead, I’m surrounded by (very nice, thank goodness) a bunch of experienced teachers who mean well and are very pleasant, but who are also trying to keep their own heads above water with all the massive stuff they’re supposed to get done in an already too-short day. So when I do make a mistake or forget a procedure or something, I end up feeling like a total idiot, which really sucks. Yay me.

This is when it really (I mean reeeeeally) helps to read the blogs of other novice teachers to see what they went through and how they navigated their way out of the quagmire that is first-year teaching. Fellow writers, your blogs give a ray of much-needed sunshine to those of us who are trying so hard to keep our heads above water while still managing to pull off some modicum of looking like we actually know a little of what we’re doing.

Thank you, fellow teacher bloggers. Thank you.