The little things.

When you’re a teacher, the little things really go a long way.  I suddenly appreciate treating myself to dinner at Chipotle with my friend on the way to grad class.  I smile every time I look at the daises that my student brought me for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Somehow, I think a little bit out of necessity, we allow these things to go a long way.

As I enter the final two months with the c/o 2011, there are many things going on within the depths (okay, not really that deep, I know) of my mind.

First of all.  I have just about earned a masters degree.  I know, what the heck?  My FINAL grad class was this past Thursday.  I didn’t realize just how good it would feel.  I practically skipped out of the building with a huge smile on my face.  Even though I didn’t place much significance or allot much time to my grad work, I am so glad that it’s basically over.  Just a few things left to go and then it will be time to graduate.

Secondly, I realized that affirmation (much like daises) goes a long way too.  In a recent conversation with my Curriculum Coordinator, she told me that anyone that knows anything about good teaching and curriculum knows that I am the strongest link of the 10th grade team.   Humility is typically the policy, but sometimes it’s okay to celebrate one’s achievements, right?

I was damn proud.  My Curriculum Coordinator is someone that I look to as a huge source of stability within our school’s English Department.  She was TFA 6 years ago in the Baltimore corps and has stayed in urban ed.  We didn’t have her last year and I can’t even begin to express how much better things are in the ELA Department at my school this year.  To have her say what she did was incredibly gratifying.  I also had the Chief Academic Officer of our entire district walk into my classroom randomly when I was having our “Scholar Celebration Day” with pizza and cake before the DC-CAS (the standardized test for the DC School District).  He asked me if there was anything he could do to get me to stay.  Was it money?  He could fix that.  What could he do?

I was like “uhhh, can we not talk about this right now?”  The kids are so used to having visitors in the classroom, that fortunately, I don’t think any of them were even paying attention to our conversation.

To think that in under 2 years in the classroom, I have slowly mastered aspects of what it means to be a really good teacher.  What it means to teach and love my kids.    And for those of you that may not be aware of the politics that go on in DC, 10th grade is a high stakes testing year, so they try to place the “best” teachers in the 10th grade for obvious reasons.  Again, I was really proud at what all of this meant to be a strong teacher.  It’s a moment that stands out in my mind.

But of course, today (Monday) we’re back to reality.  There is a flood in my classroom.  Class starts in 30 minutes and I still wanted to set up for the day.  I had to “adopt” 6 kids from the class next door.  The kids (especially mine) were bad.  I just wrote a quiz to review classroom expectations and procedures.  The back of the quiz includes a sheet to indicate preferences for permanent group work seating.  It’s funny how my mind has changed.  I just.  Think differently now.