Growing: Reflections on the Last Four Months

This year has been amazing for me as a teacher. I am now into my sixth year of teaching; I have passed that invisible line over my fifth year, proving my choice in the field was correct. (I have read many sources saying that over half of new teachers don't make it past their fifth year.) Once that line is crossed, it seems that one has become a teacher for life.

I realized at the beginning of this year, the newness was definitely gone for me. I wasn't anxious in the two days leading up to the first day of school and I had started to feel comfortable. This told me that something was wrong. My teaching was missing the excitement, I was going through the motions that at one point had been challenging and now were comfortable. I knew I wasn't happy with my teaching even though in my department, I'm considered the radical one.

In September, I made a little pledge to myself. I had just started reading dy/dan and some other blogs and I was getting excited. I told myself that my goal should be to add to my blog twice a month, instead of the once per month posts that I had started with. Since my writing became more important to me, so did my reading and the next thing I knew, I was listening to other teachers and having conversations about teaching that resembled the type of connections that I had made during my time studying education.

All of this has been so meaningful to me and the group involved in this seems so small that I am ready to expand. I'm going to be submitting my application to present about professional blogging at the ATOMIM conference this spring. I'm only on the beginning of my journey but thanks to everyone who has inspired me and encouraged me to become a better teacher. I hope I can now help others to do the same.