I absolutely cannot believe that we are nearly at the end of May and counting down into the double-digits of school coming to another close. This marks a close on my 5th year of teaching, which is a personal milestone considering that, within 5 years, teachers quit and go on to another profession. I can't tell you how many moments of "I am absolutely done"-quitting I have thought about (I think the most of them happened last year), but I am no longer at that decision. Moving on to 8th grade this year, I've found a better spot in the system. My kids were older, more of them were able to make better decisions prior to acting instead of after-the-fact, and we had great conversations about a better selection of literature. Not to hate on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry nor A Wrinkle in Time, I just couldn't delve deeper than a level of: "Why do you think this conflict occurred?" But these 8th graders wanted to take it to a deeper level and discuss current events with our reading, tying in similar central ideas within our novel to real-life stuff.
And, on top of that, I taught the majority of my kids I had as 6th graders. To see them two years out, a little more grown up, a little more mature than when they came into middle school, I get to see them leave these walls and move on to some hopefully better things. The only thing I can do is *hope* that we all have equipped them with what they need to make good decisions for themselves.
I still wasn't sure I found my exact niche in the teaching sphere, so I applied to other schools and grade levels. It seemed as if there were more positions available now than ever before. I'm not sure if it was the new Common Core curriculum or it was just that time in a teacher's life where they decided to pack up and move into the promised land of retirement. I landed a 10th grade position for next year at a local high school (not one that my students are going to be attending, unless they move) and, as the gods would have it, my current co-teacher is going to be my full-time co-teacher over there as well. How lucky can I get? I feel like I need to encase myself in a glass bubble so nothing bad happens to me from now until next school year because I think I've already sucked up all of the luck I will ever get from here on out.
But the year isn't over yet. We are still planning on wrapping up our final novel, finishing out the last lesson seed, prepping them for their promotion ceremony - writing speeches, practicing walking, making sure they wear the correct clothing - and I'm finalizing their 8th grade good-bye video. As I'm putting this together, it's bringing tears to my eyes to see how far they've all come. Sure there have been moments where I've shaken my head at some of their actions and had to catch myself from getting too upset, but overall, these kids are good kids. They'll do good things. I hope they remember to shoot me an email every time they do.
