my first year

Today I cleaned out my classroom and locked it up for the summer. It was a bittersweet moment. I can't believe my first year of teaching is done. Wasn't I just starting the special ed program at BYU? Now I have BYU students coming to get volunteer hours in my classroom. It's all just too weird to handle. Here are some of the things I learned this year.

-First, second, or even third impressions can be wrong.

-When you think your patience is gone, somehow, the Lord provides more.

-Deciding to start a degree endorsement in your first year of teaching is dumb.

-Just when you think you are on top of your paper work, you get slammed.

-The kids who act the most unlovable, are the ones who need it the most.

-Just when things are going well, you will get a new student. And he will have ADHD.

-Apparently I have a "good rapport" with 8th grade boys with behavior issues. That's why they like to dump them on me. 

-Some kids are the way they are because they have CRAPPY parents.

-Plan ahead. Don't wait until the end of the year to do full scale IQ and academic testing on 5 kids.

-I am a very lucky girl to be at the school I'm at and on the team I'm on. I've heard horror stories from my fellow teaching friends and my year was a blast.

-Easiest way to have your students respect you is to respect them.

-I'm not the only one who thinks the weird voices I use are funny. Apparently my humor appeals to the middle school audience as well.

-Be positive. Always always always always always.

-There's a difference between helping and enabling.

-My future children will always have consequences for their actions, both positive and negative. 

-Talking sternly and saying you are "disappointed" works way better than yelling and telling kids you are mad.

-Set rules strict and consistent from the very beginning.

-Coworkers can become family.

-The capacity of my love is much greater than I thought it to be. Sometimes I am surprised at the love I feel for these kids.

-A compliment goes a long way.

-I'm a good teacher.

-Kids say the darndest things. The most weird, random, gross, perverted, loud, obnoxious, and darndest things.

-One student can change the dynamic of the entire classroom.

-I am going to ALWAYS pick my own children up on time. Always. No one wants to be the last kid there saying his mom is "on her way."

-Sometimes kids do dumb things. Because they are kids. It's okay. 

-Stop procrastinating. It always makes things worse.

-Sometimes you need to pick your battles. Are they working? No. But are they throwing things across the room? No. Then it's a good day.

-Some days the kids are just having bad days. Just like me. Sometimes they just need a cool down, not a reprimand. 

-Even the most "lost" students can make progress.

-Middle school still sucks.
-I had a way better up-bringing that 80% of my students. Some of these 14-year-olds have been through more than I ever have.

-My mood rubs off on each one of my students. I can help them have a better day by choosing a better mood.

-The tiniest bit of effort from an adult can mean the world to a child. Even if it's just listening to them tell you about their favorite level in a video game.

-Sometimes just a smile from one of my kids can brighten my day.

-Warning my kids that I am grumpy actually helps a lot.

-It's really hard to get mad about my boys farting when I think it's so funny.

-Teaching teaches you just as much, if not more, than it teaches the student.

So much has happened in so little time. I seriously can't believe Nathan wasn't even home from his mission when I started the school year and now we are married. I can't believe the strangers that walked into my classroom last August are now some of the people I love most in the world. And I do love them. Holy crap, I love these guys so much. I meant it when I said I realized how vast the capacity of my love is. Each one of these 30 kids has wedged their way into my heart and I know I will never forget them. I don't think they realize just how much they have taught me. Obviously, I have the best co-workers in the world and they have become some of my dearest friends and helped me so much this first year, but it's the kids who have really changed me. I get a bit sad when I think about how another teacher will get to teach them next year. I also get worried of what life will do to them. Life has already done so much to them and adding on a learning disability gives them no extra advantage in this world.

I hope in the future they come back and visit me but more than that, I hope the people in their futures' uplift them and make them happy. I hope they always remember how smart they are. I hope they feel confident in themselves and in the new skills they are learning. I hope my girls feel beautiful and stop bickering and putting so much faith into what stupid boys say. I hope my boys don't get addicted to video games and treat the women in their lives with the respect they treated me with. I hope they all turn in their assignments and that they read every single night. I hope kids don't make fun of them and I hope they themselves don't feel that there is anything about them worthy of being made fun of. I hope they feel happy. I hope they feel special. I hope they feel loved. I think that is my biggest wish for my little kiddies. I hope there is always someone there to love them when I'm not there anymore.

In 3 months my classroom will be full of 30 new faces.
I am ready to fall in love all over again.

And with that sentimental rant, I shall leave you with this..