6 months ago...

Today marks (approximately) my 6 month anniversary with the working world, and more specifically, as a "real" teacher (with a certificate!). When I think back to everything that I've been through, accomplished, and survived, I chuckle and give myself a little pat on the back. Some brief highlights worth noting:

• Learning to function with less than 4 hours of sleep
• ACTUALLY looking forward to my time in Jersey and dreading my return to NY (a reflection of one my lower points in life)
• Contributing to the learning of some very special people in institute (we made the most gains in our entire school!)
• My 5-year plan completely falling apart upon learning of my position as a learning specialist
• Getting a full workout during the first two weeks of school while chasing, carrying, etc. children (most likely crawling, hiding under tables, taking laps around the school)
• Getting kicked, slashed at, cursed at by a 5 year old
• Successfully teaching little people how to count (THIS IS A BIG DEAL!)
• Most recently (i.e. Thursday), getting some major bruises on my shins and knees and a super stretched out sleeve on my cardigan while "escorting" a child to the main office

A quick shout out...

My journey thus far has definitely been quite a roller coaster ride-emotionally, physically, and mentally. Some quick shout-outs here...

I am so grateful for my support system, most notably my family and my boyfriend. They put up with a lot as they listen to me describe work with the most drastic mood changes-

"Ughhhhh. I'm so angry that this kid ruined my sweater...I mean, it wasn't super nice, maybe $25 from Gap, but STILL...."

*2 minutes later after that rant..*

"Ohhh let me show you some pictures of my kids. They're the CUTEST! My job is awesome!"

I wouldn't be surprised if they've started to tune me out at this point (their responses and reactions have definitely gotten more generic-"Cool," "You really like working with little people, huh?")

Learning as a teacher

I would definitely describe my rate of growth as exponential. Between my colleagues and my actual experience in the classroom, I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. The more I think about it, the more grateful I am for having chosen to get into a classroom before (well, as it stands now, it's more while) attending graduate school. I find that I'm the kind of learner that requires first-hand experience and thrives much more when left to fall and make mistakes than the kind that can absorb and apply information attained from lectures, discussions, etc. Though I certainly don't like messing up, I think that this dislike drives me to make sure that I never make the same mistake again.

Patience really is a virtue! Especially with students with disabilities. When I first started, I'd chastise myself for not seeing the progress I wanted in my students. We were working so hard, but it just didn't add up-the input did not result in the expected output. However, I've come to appreciate that children experience the light bulb moment just as adults often do-you might spend many tedious hours talking about the same thing, and to the kids, you might as well be speaking in a foreign language. And then, one, GLORIOUS day, it clicks. And they make the connections. And for that one moment, all that hard, intensive work, is worth it. BEST. FEELING. EVER. (on a recent math assessment, one of my students made 31 points of growth!)

The million dollar question is, what is the cause of this delay? Is it that the material is not developmentally appropriate? Or is it that we're just not appealing to the students' learning styles? Most likely, it's a combination of the two. However, in some situations, I find that one trumps the other in terms of likelihood of being the culprit. Thus, one must truly engage in the craft of teaching, and present information in many different ways (differentiate) to really target the root of the problem.

People often ask me whether or not I like teaching. My answer often varies depending on the day asked. However, when it really comes down to it, I am obsessed with my job-I cannot imagine myself any where else (at least at this point in my life!).

Teaching 101-Staying Fit

Before I started teaching, one of my biggest concerns was fitness. In my "youth" (referring to my elementary to high school days), I was quite active, with sports every day pretty much all year round. In college, while I was definitely not as fit and active as I had been, I still had access to the gym, mandatory PE classes (and one particularly memorable modern dance class, thank you, best-teacher-ever!!), ridiculously cheap zumba classes (shout out to my fellow zumba-ers) and even the park for leisure running. All of these fitness opportunities for my taking-if I was not fit, it was 100% due to my lack of discipline.

As a new teacher, on the other hand, exercise did not seem to be an option, primarily due to the immense work load (and long hours at my school). Despite urges from our COO to maintain a healthy work-life balance and carve out time for personal priorities, having a life outside of work seemed to be an ideal, not reality (and even if I did have time for personal priorities, exercising plummeted quickly in rank). For the first couple of weeks, the extent of my fitness ranged from walking to and from train stations, to chasing little children around the school.

Shortly after I started working, I realized that one way to "stay fit" was to just not eat lunch, which is easy if you're a classroom teacher since you're essentially "on" all day (stay fit is in quotes, since studies have shown that it's actually more detrimental to deprive your body of food, intentional or not). It was unlikely that I would not eat lunch, since food is such a huge part of my life. I was still stuck in a fitness rut.

Fitness tip #1: make time in the day to eat, even if it's just a little snack.

Luckily, our school has one awesome dance teacher, and she offers a weekly zumba class (for free!) for all adults in the school building. Though only 45 minutes a week, it's a real workout (both muscular and cardiovascular), and releases much-needed endorphins on a Monday evening.

Fitness tip #2: make time to work out on a high-stress day. It feels awesome to do something for yourself, and lets you step away from a school mindset (even if only for 45 minutes).

Today, I experienced a new type of workout-strength training by books:

I look like a turtle!

In last week's TFA newsletter blast, there was a post by an organization that had recently received a large donation of books from McGraw Hill. These books were deemed unusable for their purposes, and thus they reached out to TFA. I, being a first year teacher, jumped at this opportunity to get anything that could possibly help my students, and scheduled an appointment to pick out some books today. What I thought would be 7-10 books turned out to be way more than I could have imagined. Because I was the first one to swing by, I had a huge assortment to choose from. In all, I picked up about 25 books for my kiddos. AWESOME. As an added bonus, they had a bunch of big books (essentially enlarged versions of books, on average 2-3 feet x 2-3 feet) for me to take too! Serious win. With a whopping 7 pound backpack, plus a few big books in tow, I made the trek from Brooklyn to Long Island through the rain. I was pleasantly surprised by how out of breath I was when I got to my doorstep. I anticipate some aching muscles tomorrow as well. Free books and a workout? Double win.

To give some perspective, here's a picture of the shell relative to the New York Times.

Fitness tip #3: add some extra books in your bag to get some cardio and strength training.

All that to say, today's events have inspired this post, which will hopefully inspire all you (and me) to find time to squeeze in some fitness in your busy lives.