10 Years

Today I wrapped up the 10th year of my teaching career.

3 years, Tooele Junior High
2 years, Tooele High School
5 years, Murray High School
4 classrooms
Courses taught include Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Math Secondary II, SLCC Math 1010, SLCC Math 1050, U.S. History I, U.S. History II, and a variety of advisory classes
Well over 1000 students in my classrooms

When I started teaching at Tooele Junior High, I looked at the teachers who had been doing this forever and thought to myself, "there's no way I'm going to be doing this exact thing, in the same classroom for 30 years . . . no way."

Now that a third of that time has passed, I think my perspective has changed slightly.  I still agree that I don't want to be in the same school and classroom for 30 years, but I think I could do this same job for that long (or at least the next 10).  I genuinely like my job and I like what I do.  I like having a job where I get days off for holidays and, of course, the summer.  I like the atmosphere of school and learning.  The main reason I can see myself doing this for a lot longer, however, is that I like interacting with kids!  I think the job of a teacher can be the most influential job you can have in the educational life of a kid.I have a hard time, at least today, envisioning myself working as a counselor or administrator because I would miss the day-to-day interaction with students in the classroom.

Year 10, itself, was a rough one and I don't think that I was as good of a teacher this year as I have been other years, but I guess you probably have years like that in anything you do.

Why was this year a bit rough?

• New curriculum with extremely limited resources, and stressful planning of the curriculum while working closely with my colleagues
• Working with students of a vast spectrum of math skills, in the same classroom (due to students of all different levels being thrown into the new curriculum)
• Tired mama of 2, trying to teach school without dosing off
•  I don't really have any better specific reasons.  It was just tough.

 I took a picture of my classroom the other day:

 

One other part of this year is that I've had a hard time remembering names.  I can remember some names of kids I taught 10 years ago, but then I forget names of kids I taught yesterday.  I either have early onset Alzheimers or I have "my name cup runneth over" (a personal theory I could expand for you at a later date). 

Finally, year 10 marks the death of a good and loyal companion.  The Sansui combo DVD/VHS player was given to me as a gift by my Grandma Huber at some point more than 10 years ago (she liked to give appliances as gifts).  I don't show a lot of movies, but it is still a very vital part of any classroom.  The VHS side of this device died a few months ago (it plays audio, but no video) and just this week, the DVD side also died (it spits out every DVD and refuses to play it).  The death of this machine is sad because it is something that my Grandma gave me, but it is also sad because it has been with me through all 10 years of teaching.  All good things, even off brand electronic devices, must come to an end at some point, I guess.

 

Well, that's it.  Raise a cherry coke to the end of 10 years and look to the future for many more!