It's Saturday night and I'm in the bathroom dying my hair and painting my toenails (a girl's got to multi-task) and it just popped into my head that I was doing this exact same thing on this day last year. (Though I do dye my hair and paint my toenails MANY more times that just once a year.) And it got me to thinking -
Last year at this time I was on Oahu. Getting ready to fly to Maui by myself...to start my first teaching job by myself. Did I mention that I was going by myself?:) While it made it a little scarier, and a little more stressful, it was a good thing - I was able to get the things done that I needed to at the time.
Looking back I can't believe it's been a year. In many ways the time has gone my way too fast - my kids are older, I have a million things that I was planning to do, planning to see, not many of which actually got done. In other ways it seems like it was the longest year of my life. I never thought I would get my classroom done in time, or that I would figure out what I was doing teaching a bunch of 5 yr olds, or that I would be confident in my ability to do so (we're still working on that one). I couldn't imagine that the school year would ever end - right about February I was sure that I wouldn't make it to May. But things got better and I did. And I think I did OK.
And now here I am, ready (we're using that term loosely here) to start on my next teacher adventure - honestly it's not that much different than last year: same school, same grade (classroom still not ready). BUT this year I'm in a new room (not a portable), with a 3 (out of 9) new teachers on our K team, and one year of experience under my belt. Actually I'm super excited for this year, now that I've been through it all once at least I know what to expect and mostly what to prepare for. I'm ready (mentally) to learn and grow with my new class. But mostly I think this year I'm ready to enjoy teaching - at least a little more:)
