Looking Forward to Challenge

Huzzah! I survived my first week as a high school teacher!

This first week, I got off a little easy, because the students were testing in the morning and off in the afternoons for most of the week. But once the students left campus, I had plenty to keep me busy: lesson planning, meetings, signing up for the union, getting my IT stuff up and running, scanning exams, getting familiar with curriculum, trying to remember names, etc…

If living daringly involves challenge and stretching the limits of your comfort zone, I think I’m in the right place. And I most definitely had a lesson in getting up early. I have to be to work by 7:15 a.m. Yowch, after being on a graduate student’s schedule for so long!

This entire week was a big lesson on going with the flow. I also had a lot of lessons in speaking up and asking questions to address my needs.

“What does that acronym mean again?”
“Can you remind me your name again?”
“What subject do you teach?”
“This student needs extra time to take the test. What do I do?”
“Which software do I need to access that information?”

So much information, and so much to remember.

But, it’ll come.

In large part because I’ll have a lot of help. The high school I’m working at operates in teams called Professional Learning Communities. In these teams, we discuss how we are going to teach the material to the students. There are also resources available from our district, which are super helpful for a new teacher. The science coach for my department is amazing, and incredibly supportive. She has great ideas for implementing lessons so that the students have the best chance to understand and connect with the information.

The availability of all of these resources is causing me to feel less nervous. I have a lot of work ahead of me for the next two quarters, but I know that I won’t be in it alone.

Ditto for my Ph.D. stuff at USF. My adviser is helping me get my publications together so that I can graduate by the end of the year.

I’ve got a lot of challenges ahead of me this year with teaching, finishing my Ph.D., and taking classes towards my full teaching certification. While I’m doing all of that, I need to be mindful to keep doing things that feed my soul and keep me sane (e.g. journaling, creating art, shooting archery, jogging, getting out in nature, playing music, etc…).

This year is going to challenge the lessons I’ve already learned about living daringly, and I’m sure I’ll learn some new lessons as well.

I’m looking forward to the challenge!

As far as taking care of myself goes, today I went and shot my bow for a couple of hours. I came home and took a nap. I journaled. I walked my dog. I sat outside and watched the river a few times. I did my laundry.

Today I took care of myself, so that tomorrow I can get the things done that I need to for work and school.

Huzzah for changes, new challenges, and new adventures!