The First Year

If you ever decide to start teaching, you will hear several veteran teachers tell you the same thing..."Your first year is all about surviving." Nice huh? Inspires a lot of confidence? No? :)

I've heard lots of terror stories of teacher's first years of teaching. I tried to put on a strong, confident front, but I was absolutely terrified that first day. I looked like one of the students, and my biggest fear was that they would totally ignore me and I would have ZERO control over my classroom. I'm pretty sure I had the same dream for weeks before school started. I was at the front of the classroom trying to teach, my students were going bananas.

I'm proud, and blessed, and happy to say that I had a very good first year of teaching. For the most part, my first year was pretty non eventful and I have a lot of people to thank for that. So here goes...

1. God - I know, it sounds extremely cliche and cheesy, but its the truth. I prayed, and prayed A LOT! I prayed weeks before school started. I prayed in my classroom before school started during professional development and on the first day of school. I prayed in the car EVERY day on my way to school, several days on the way home. I prayed in the shower. If a particular student was giving me trouble, I'd sit in their seat before school in the morning and pray for that student. Absolutely, hands down, no way I could have done it without my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have no idea how people do it without Him. I would have floundered, BIG time.
   
2. Nathan - Nathan has a few years of teaching on me, and he started teaching at a fairly rough school, especially compared to Klein Oak. He gave me his rules and procedures that he uses with his classes. He gave me a realistic idea of what to expect that was much more helpful than my certification classes ever were. He gave me countless pep talks and advice and helped to give me the confidence to kick my first student out of class! (Trust me, the student deserved it and it was long overdue.) He allowed me to talk nonstop about school even though the last thing he wanted to hear or talk about was school. He let me show him new things I learned with the computer even though he had no idea what I was talking about. He held me and let me cry when a class was giving me a hard time. He encouraged me when I got nervous about something at school. He was a big reason of why I got into teaching and my first year of teaching would not have been as successful without him. THANKS BABE! I LOVE YOU!
   
3. My "official" mentor teacher - Cindy Eschenberg - I like to call Cindy my school mom. She reminds me of my own mom in so many ways, and they have so many things in common, its scary. Cindy was/is my big emotional supporter at school. We didn't teach the same classes, so she couldn't always help me with lessons plans, but she was/is the best person to vent to. I remember running into her classroom during my conference period, balling my eyes out because of an awful class (more to come on that class in another post). She just let me cry, hugged me, and then gave me some rather useful ideas of how to handle the class. On the one class that I taught 2nd semester that she could help me with, she let me bounce ideas off of her, and gave me great ideas and resources to use as well. We had the same conference period my first year, and we spent a lot of time talking and her encouraging me. She was/is my biggest cheerleader and fan, she inspires a lot of confidence.
   
4. My "unofficial" mentor teacher - Don Sajda - Don definitely took me under his wing that first year. When I first met Don I was standing in front of the hallway gate, looking longingly (as opposed to walking INTO the hallway gate, that's another blog) at my classroom door that was on the other side of the gate the first day of professional development. I think at first he was trying to figure out if I was a student or a teacher, but he showed me how to bypass the gate through a back stairway. He stood and talked to me at the CTE professional development where I knew no one and the people that I did know hadn't shown up yet, keeping me from feeling even more awkward and out of place than I already did. Little did I know that that day was "Tell-the-new-teacher-she-looks-like-a-student-Day", as before he saved me, I had about 5 people tell me that. He let me sit across from him at the lunch table and always provided great conversation. Or depending on other people's conversations, we'd throw looks at each other like "Oh my gosh, if he/she doesn't shut up we might have to get the duct tape out". He gave me his homemade beer at Christmas, which Nathan thoroughly enjoyed. I was happy to return the favor with a homemade "25 Years of Service" clock when he got stiffed for his 25...I think 25 years in Klein ISD clock. He invited me to throw darts at Molly's, (which I finally beat him 3 years later, so he'd had a few beers and I was totally sober, I'm still claiming the victory!) He reminds me a lot of my dad, typical engineer. Not the most sensitive guy, but always ready with practical advice and encouragement, and a soft spot for cookies. ;)
   
5. Ms. Ditta - Ms. Ditta was my supervising principal my first year. She was a huge encouragement and always willing to talk. She also happened to be the principal of one of my most challenging students, and thanks to her, there were lots of days that student was in ISS and I didn't have to deal with him.
   
6. My department chair - Pat McClintock - I was slightly nervous about having a department chair. Nathan had a truly awful team leader at JV and she made his life miserable. Thankfully, that was not the case with Pat. She was there when I needed her, but she didn't hover and micro-manage. And she pretty much made my year at the end of the year when she told me she was really glad she hired me.
   
7. Mr. Dristas - He hired me, so obviously, he makes the special list. Even though he signed me up for some really lame training this year that made me want to shoot myself in the head...I suppose I'll forgive him. ;)
   
8. Ms. Kirksey and all of the amazing secretaries - I learned real quick who was REALLY in charge of the school. ;) They answered my hundreds of questions and always with a smile.

There is another teacher who was a big part of my success. She basically gave me all of my lesson plans and really helped with the actual "teaching" part. Unfortunately, some things happened at the beginning of this year and we have since gone our separate ways. But I will never forget all of her help.

Those aren't all of the people who made my year successful, just some of the major ones. I'm thankful that I work at a great school, where it truly feels like a family. I was so scared to kick my first student out of class, thinking for sure the principals would send them right back to me saying "It was no big deal, deal with it". But that never happened and I've always felt supported.

Kids come and go, but its the staff and how they work with each other, that either makes or breaks a school.

Back Again

I've decided its time to pick my blog back up again. I knew when I started the blog it wasn't going to last very long.

Truth is, I just don't have a lot of exciting things to write about or that I think anyone would be even remotely interested in reading. Or sometimes I would have something exciting to write about, but the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and type on the computer.

So...I've decided to make my blog about one of the few things I can talk a LOT about. Teaching. I know, I'm lame. Its okay. I can accept it.

I feel in my short teaching career, I have had a lot of interesting things happen. Lots of great kids, a couple not so great ones, and I have stories out the wahzoo. So here I go.

I'm going to break these up daily, so I don't overwhelm everyone with a ridiculously long post. See my Bahamas trip recap below for a prime example of a ridiculously long post.

So tonight, I'll start with how I got into teaching.

I did not go the traditional route into teaching. I had/have plenty of friends who's life dream was to be a teacher. They were/are all super creative, they loved kids, it was just natural. If you would have told me when I was in high school, or college, or even 5 years ago that I would become a teacher, I would've told you that you were nuts. I didn't see myself as being very patient, and I wasn't all that crazy about high school kids. What did I have in common with them?

I had tried a stint in teaching 9th grade sunday school at our church in Florida and that didn't turn out very well. It wasn't bad, I just felt awkward, I didn't feel like I connected well with the kids. I'm now blaming it on the fact that they were freshman and freshman are just awkward all in themselves. ;)

My first job out of college was my true dream job. Motorsports marketing. I got paid to go to NASCAR races, drag races and driving schools. It was a blast. The pay sucked, but the perks of the job definitely made up for it. The company ended up going under (that's a WHOLE other blog I could write about) and we were all forced to find new places of employment. Seriously, how do you find a job when you've just had your dream job?

I was blessed in that I found a job very quickly. I started working for a software company, basically in their customer service department. It was another small company, only about 10 of us. I absolutely LOVED the people that I worked with, but the job itself? I pretty much hated. Okay, hate is a pretty strong word, so maybe not HATE. But I was bored out of my mind. They loved me because I was always asking for something to do, but I was slowly coming to the end of my rope. I learned real quick that a "sit behind the desk and wait for the phone to ring" was not the job for me.

In my job I was constantly having to help people with their computer. Not just with the software that our company provided, but with just about everything, from how to place an attachment on an email (no, I am not joking), to using any number of Microsoft office products, to helping people get their printer back working (which 9 times out of 10 the correct answer was to restart your computer). It definitely taught me patience.

The people I worked with also thought I was somewhat of a genius because I could do all sorts of fancy things with Microsoft office. Things that I learned in my high school computer class, which was one of the few classes that I truly enjoyed in high school.

So I thought to myself, why don't I just try teaching? I'll make more money (yes, sad but true), Nathan and I will have the same schedule, summers off, 2 weeks at Christmas, no crazy 290 traffic. Why not? So I enrolled in the alternative certification program that Nathan used and off I went.

The alternative certification program was necessary, but completely worthless in my eyes. Did it prepare me for the classroom? Not really, but it was one of those necessary evils. Anyways...

I finished the program, passed my tests with flying colors, and started looking for teaching jobs. I figured Cy-Fair ISD would be the place to be considering I'm a product of the Cy-Fair school system and Nathan was teaching at Jersey Village High School at the time. But I applied just about everywhere to keep my options open.

I had a rather awkward interview with the HR person at Klein ISD. Truth be told, at one point in the interview I wanted to get up and tell the guy thanks, but I don't think this is going to work. Until he said "Tell me about teenagers". I had no idea what to say and so I just said "I think they WANT to learn, but they don't know how". I thought it was a really dumb answer but he seemed to like it and the interview did a complete 180 and he started calling people while I was sitting their in his office.

I ended up getting an interview at Klein Oak High School, not long after that awkward interview. This interview went MUCH better and I felt really confident about it afterwards. But still, who would want to hire me? I've had ZERO teaching experience, I hadn't even subbed, and only spent a day observing classes.

My mom had taught me at a young age, that when you want a job, persistence is the key. So I kept my name in the loop with emails to the assistant principal in charge of hiring. He had said that they would be calling for 2nd interviews soon.

A few days later I was at the software job and missed a call from the assistant principal, Mr. Dristas. I was all excited because I thought I was getting a 2nd interview. So I got my pen and sticky note pad all ready to write down the date and time and then called him back.

I will never forget Mr. Dristas' exact words: "We'd like to know if you'd...(slight pause) like the job?" I.was.shocked! What? They actually want me? ME? Do they realize I've never stepped foot in a classroom before?

My exact response was "(Pause)...Umm...yes, yes I would!" And I believe he laughed at me after that.

My FIRST interview I got the job? Out of all those people who I'm sure had much more experience than me? I didn't even have hook-ups in the Klein district. It was most definitely a God thing.

And that's where my journey into teaching began.