Do over!

Last Friday, I stopped by my old school, during my lunch break on the end-of-quarter professional development day. I had a couple of really nice conversations with my old colleagues there, especially with my favorite English teacher.

One of the things I said to him, and later to my new Principal, is that I think that it's very beneficial for anyone who goes through the kind of accelerated teacher prep that I had to make a change after the first couple of years. One of my favorite books about teaching is "Reluctant Disciplinarian", by a guy who came through Teach For America. He switched schools at the end of his first year, and he makes the point that changing schools gave him a chance to reinvent himself as a teacher, to start building a new reputation, trying different management and instructional techniques...

I think that my change this year has had a similar effect. I also think that this school has a somewhat higher class of students, or at least that there are more high-end students here than there-- but mostly, I think that the chance to come in and reinvent myself has been HUGE. At the last school, I earned the scorn and disdain of my students. Here, I've developed a reputation as a caring but tough teacher. There, I came off as "trying to be too smart". Here, I think I come off as bright and energetic.

I told my colleague that I think of myself as starting over, as kind of like a more experienced first-year teacher. "Kind of like you did a two year residency, huh?" he asked.

Yeah, kind of.

Wow, I love my job

I've always been aware that it's important to have the respect of your students, but it's never really hit me how absolutely incredible it can feel. I have one student who I just ran into in the hallway, after a kind of "meh" sort of lesson, in which he was consistently disengaged (to be fair, he came into the room pretty unfocused). I talked to him about it in the hallway, "What happened in there, man? You were totally out of it, even before you came in."

He paused just a moment, offered me his hand, and said, "I'm sorry, man. I'll get it back together." As I shook his hand, he gave me a chuck on the shoulder, even. It was a really touching moment, and I really felt that he was sincerely concerned that I was disappointed in what he'd done in class.

I walked straight into my office, and just about broke into tears. I love this job, in ways I had only dreamed about.