Reflection

I have been reflecting a lot on where I am now, where I have been, and where I want to go. It has been 22 weeks since I began teaching. 6 long months. 22 frustrating Sunday nights. 6 months of stress and strain. But now that the 2nd semester has started, I am able to finally look ahead: 15 more weeks of teaching (not including STAR testing, and finals week). 4 1/2 months to go until year 1 is done. I am excited to finish this roller coaster of a year, but I am terrified that my students will not have learned everything I promised that they would in the next 4 months. That is not a lot of time to re-teach new material, AND the 6 months of material that they didn't get because of poor teaching on my part. Apparently the 1st semester for new teachers is just b.s.

But now that I am looking into the future, the questions have been accumulating: Will your students reach their big goal (81% mastery on the final test)? What are you going to teach next year? How long are you planning on teaching? What are you doing this summer? How are you going to do things different next year? All of these questions are unanswerable at the moment, but they have forced me to change my focus from the past and present, into looking towards the future. And although my future is currently an unwritten book, I am excited to fill in the pages over the next 4 1/2 months.