First Few Weeks

 “Andie!” You are asking yourself. “How is the new job going?!” 

Or so I imagine, that you are beside yourself with curiosity. Thank you! I am flattered by your interest, and I will tell you. 

(Pictured: Me as Fear from "Inside Out", with a portrait a student drew of me)

I have been going full days since August 2nd. The first four days were New Teacher Orientation, first two days new to the district, last two were new to the profession. I got to hang out with our awesome new Cooper librarian the first two days, as well as my counterpart from Abilene High. This bubbly, outgoing person that took a Spanish 1 position at Cooper sat beside me and decided we were going to be friends; I love people like that, as I would have sat quietly and alone all week if no one took an interest in me. It was a literal wagon-load of information that I am still sifting through to find pieces that are relevant to me, but they have lots of people there that are happy to help you figure it out and answer questions so I am not super worried about it. 

In-service stuff started on the 9th, which was all on campus, which gave me a chance to get to know my team better. I am not going to talk about them too much as I do not want to violate their privacy without permission, but I can tell you: they have immediately endeared themselves to me, and I love them all to absolute bits. 

There is a pretty big sp-ed department here; I don’t know the chair that well yet, but there is time. I had met a great deal of them through my time subbing, particularly the coaches from the other side of campus. There is one that I covered for whenever she was out at a game, and her calm and confidence and experience has helped me build a lot of my practice for my own classroom. Sometimes I just seek her out to chat because she is has a revitalizing presence; she makes you feel like you can achieve anything. Which is probably what makes her such a good teacher and coach. 

But my room is far away, with a cluster of three teachers and a handful of paraprofessionals and a nurse that share a bucket of kids that rotate between us for the day. One of the teachers is kind and friendly, and has gone out of her way to make me feel welcome. Both her aides are sweet as peaches--one I swear the sunshine comes out just to shine on her, she is so smiley and cheery. She always wears these bright colors because she says they make her happy. The other is quieter but so good with the kids and so patient. I remember one kid was having a problem; she specifically asked to talk to that aide because she said “I know she won’t make fun of me or judge me”; that level of trust can be hard to earn with high schoolers. 

The other teacher is my mentor, and we call her the mama because she is the one that takes care us. I try not to, but I call her about a hundred times a day, going “okay, so -this- just happened; what am I supposed to do?!” She also has a son that has been through the program, so her and I can share stories about our kids and the other gets it. Oh, how I need that. She is so funny and fierce and competent and I have learned a lot from her. There is only one aide in her classroom, who is one of the best people I have ever met. She’s got the biggest heart and loves these kids like each one is her baby; she is witty and bright and generally makes life better for everyone around her. 

Which brings me to my classroom. I’ve got two aides and they’re -phenomenal-. We have got straight-up the dream team. First aide I told you a bit about: he is the only man on our team out there, and he is awesome. He keeps us laughing, even on the hard days, and can handle anything that comes his way with grace. The other aide is the active cutest; she loves k-pop and penguins and relates to Sadness from “Inside Out” (who we dressed up for on team dress-up day; I was Fear). I love the way she lights up when she talks about something she’s passionate about, and she is probably the most quotable person; we already made a t-shirt design based on something she said. (I will post it if we get it made) She is also going to college to become a special education teacher, and she is going to be amazing at it--she has a calming presence that radiates out from her that will serve her well, no matter what she decides to do. 

But what of the kids!? You say. 

I love them all already. 

Of course I do. I am the softest touch, you know, for a calloused old harpy. I can’t help it. They’re so good. Even if they can be crazy and chaotic sometimes, because they are children and that is how children are meant to be. Somehow you gotta be the quiet calm in the midst of all of it. 

A good chunk of them I already knew from last year, but of course we have some that transfer in or move or are baby freshman. 

Memorable moments from these past few weeks would be…

I was trying to explain that we would have lots of people coming in to observe me over the course of the year because it was my first year teaching. Somehow this led to the students asking how old I was. 

Student: In your 20’s! 

Different student: No, she’s in her 80’s! 

Me: So your guess is that I am somewhere between my 20s and my 80s? -considering- Well, yes. You are correct. 

We are having a lot of students who are making an attempt at flirting with me and the female aide. One day I had Mike bring up chick-fil-a, and I was drinking my lemonade. 

Student: did you get chick-fil-a for lunch?

Me: yeah, my husband brought it up for me. 

Student: WHAT?! You’re married?! This ruins all of my plans! 

Me: …-pointing to the picture of me and Mike prominently displayed by my desk- I wasn’t keeping it a secret.

The same student told me the next day that if your husband sighs at you, that means he doesn’t really love you so you should divorce him. I told Michael this, who promptly sighed heavily. 

The lovelorn nature of high schoolers is a prominent theme, and watching the drama between them has been at times entertaining and others exasperating. One student in particular has just too much love in his heart to give. 

Student: can I please go say goodbye to Kimberly? I love her so much, I miss her. 

Me: I am gonna go with a no there, babe. 

Student, forlorn: why? 

Me: Because you can’t care about her that much if you don’t know her name; there is no Kimberly in this program. 

(Do not feel too badly for the poor fellow; a short while later, Emerald came to my classroom to get a ride home for the day, and he immediately said “hey, can you tell your daughter I said hi? Please? Please?” My response was, “you are barkin' up the wrong tree there, champ”.)

Most days have been good so far, and the kids are good little ones. There have of course been missteps. I had a student flood the bathroom. I figured this was a failure on my part to communicate expectations, so we covered shared bathroom etiquette. When he did it again, we reminded him of expectations and had him help clean it up. There hasn’t been an incidence since. There is the eternal struggle of Teacher versus Cell Phone Usage, but with a verbal reminder most kids put it away and it doesn’t become an issue. Most things have remained calm and under control. 

The kids struggle mightily with my name. I have been called Ms. Wiggins, Ms. (other teacher’s name), Ms. Why, Ms Murdoch, Ms. Weirdo, and Ms. Wilson. Most of them call me simply “Miss”, and are then surprised when I don’t recognize that they are trying to get my attention. 

My biggest struggles are: 

-exhaustion. The first week, I fell asleep during dinner, right on my plate. You don’t really feel it during the day, but then you get home and you’re fully conked out. It has gotten a little better each week as I adjust, but it has been a big adjustment.

-Not getting distracted. It is so easy to get me off topic, especially if these kids start telling me stories. And they love to tell stories. There is this one kid, tells the most fantastical stories. With his imagination, he should write. Or I may write them down for him. Either way, I need to stop letting me get detracted from my lesson plans. But I keep telling myself, “what harm can it do? We have time to finish this. But I won’t get to hear their stories forever.” Which is partially true; we always do finish, and I won’t always have a chance. But it also teaches them that they can pull my focus if they ever don’t wanna do something, and that is not something I should be encouraging, probably. I saw this “open/closed” sign strategy one teacher used where if the sign is on “open”, the students can feel free to tell her whatever stories or non-sequiturs they want, but when it is on “closed” they have to stay on topic. I may try that. 

-emails. Oh my, but there are emails. There are emails about the emails, if you didn’t respond to the emails. There are emails for you and emails not for you but that you are on and emails that you must send so you have documented proof of the emails in your email. There are more emails than one can read in a day. It is like that pot of oatmeal where you forgot the magic word to make it stop, and now your whole inbox is full to overflowing and you’re trying every word to stem the tide, but it just keeps pouring. All the electronic communique, comin your way.

-attendance. Roughly seven times a day, you’ll hear a student ask “did you remember to take attendance?” and me saying “crumbs! Hold up…”. I am, slowly but surely, getting better at that one. I may make a sign that says “did you remember to take attendance” and post it on all four walls where I can see it no matter where I look. 

Today, I have covid. Though I am feeling worlds better than I was two days ago when it first struck, I still feel a tired deep in my bones. So I am going to go eat grilled cheese and take a chunky nap. Best to all of you, and I will talk to you soon (next time about my many and assorted children)--

--Andie