There will be bad days...

Oh yes there will be. Especially as a new teacher. I wish someone would have told me this at the beginning of last year. I began the year thinking, "How could you really have a bad day in pre-k??" However, I did find that there were bad days. There were days that I wondered why I ever wanted to become a teacher and days I wanted to just sit down and cry. And there was at least one day where I did come home and literally burst into tears.  But here's the thing: These days were NOTHING compared to the days that left me on top of the world.

Here is the honest truth. I LOVED the beginning of the year, but then those challenging days began to pop up every now and then and before I knew it, I was even considering quitting around January! But I stuck it out. I stuck it out through the days when that one kid just would NOT listen no matter what tactic I tried. I stuck it out through the challenging parent days and the challenging colleague days. Why? Because in between those days were the amazing days. There was the day when my little girl who had started the year unable to say one word in English began speaking in such clear sentences that I didn't even catch it at first, but then I realized, "Wow, I helped her to do that!" There was the day when my kids begged me to read Pete the Cat over and over again "in the silly voice" and I realized, "Wow, I have helped them to see how fun reading can be."  There was the day one mother teared up confessing to me that she feared her son may have a learning disorder until he came into my class and she saw how fast he grew. There was the end of the year when all but one of my parents begged me to move on to Kindergarten so I could teach their children again!

So, you see, I realized over my first year that there will be challenging student, parent, and colleague days. However, those days will pale in comparison to the amazing days. And then on the last day of school you will tear up looking at your class wondering how you could ever have thought of leaving them and how happy you are that you stuck it out.

Penny Kittle, author and teacher said it best in her book, Public Teaching One Kid At A Time, " There will be days when the frustrations and the distrust of the public will threaten to break you. There will be days when you realize how lucky you are to know these kids well, and you'll literally spring out of bed, eager to be in your classroom. You will meet kids who are heroic simply because they keep going amidst challenges we can hardly fathom. You will become connected to them in ways I can't explain, and when they move on, you will always miss them.  It takes great heart to be a teacher. You have to make room for hundreds of children because in many ways they never leave you."

The above picture is my prekindergarten class graduating this past year. This was one of the moments of extreme pride that made all the bad days seem non-existent.


Source
"Public Teaching One Kid At A Time" by Penny Kittle.