Last Day of my First Job

Today I finished my first ever "big-girl" teaching job. Yes, it was only 5 weeks. Yes, it was just summer school. Yes, it was just reading. But OMG it was a reality check.  There was no mentor teacher to watch teach or ask questions. There was no one to watch my class when I had to go to the bathroom. There was no one checking my lesson plans and giving me feedback. There was no one telling me whether my lesson was going to fail or not. There was no one checking to make sure that I was meeting standards. There was no one else disciplining my students. It was all ME.  There were SO MANY KIDS. I had over 80 kids in those short 5 weeks. That's a lot of kids when my student teaching only had 10. I learned most all of their names.  But... I survived! I always had a lesson prepared. The kids had stuff to do when they finished early. I got a student with autism to actually sit and participate in my lesson with enthusiasm. I got students that swore they hate reading to tell me "it's not so bad." I had kids tell me they loved my class. They followed my rules and respected my discipline. They talked A LOT... but that wasn't something I minded to much. They wrote me letters, drew me pictures, and told me that I was the best reading teacher ever. They improved in their reading, their ability to find answers in a text and referring to the text in their answers. They learned!  And now... it's over. By noon today they will be gone and on their way. They will have their report cards, their portfolios, and will set off to prepare for the school year. My classroom will be cleaned and packed and ready for me to move into my next room.  I will miss this room dearly. It was a HUGE room on a top of a giant hill. Nothing blocking my wonderful island breezes. We were never hot (which is important in Hawaii). I will miss my ocean view from my desk and my ocean view on my drive to school. 

Now... on to my next teaching adventure! Classroom set up begins on Monday!!!