This year we have the pleasure of having six first year teachers in our building. As I’ve watched them grow over the first few months of the school year I can’t help but be reminded of my first year. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had no idea what I was doing. Teaching felt like “work” and by “work” I don’t mean fun, enjoyable work; I mean miserable, torturous work. Now, 18 years later, I am grateful for the 180 days of struggle that I endured during my first year of teaching but there is not an amount of money in the world that could persuade me to redo that first year, even now.
Over the course of my next few years of teaching, I was able to settle into a grade level that I loved and find a support system to help me grow into the teacher I wanted to be. I am glad I didn’t give up during that initial year. This week I completed OTES on our new teachers. They all worked hard to do their very best for their evaluations but what I love the most is that they chose to have me observe something that they wanted feedback on! Their growth mindset and willingness to be vulnerable and takes a risk made me so proud. Their decision to look at OTES as a growth opportunity says so much about them as professionals and it speaks to the culture of our building. Growing is what we do, we take every opportunity to learn from our experiences so we can get better. That’s exactly what our new teachers did this week. In a building where we strive to be ELITE our new teachers taught me a great lesson this week: Take a risk. You might mess up, but you’ll definitely learn. Take a few minutes to think about your first year of teaching. How have you changed as an educator? Who helped you along the way so you could become the teacher you are today? Now, I challenge all of you to share some words of wisdom and encouragement with our new teachers! Make sure they know that it gets better and that they’re doing an amazing job!
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