Monday, July 28, 2014

Recovery

There once was a young, first year teacher. He scoured the internet for blogs by first year teachers and found none. (OK, he maybe spent two or three minutes on Google. Max.) That was when he said to himself, "Self!" and decided to be a first year teacher writing a blog during the first year.

Absent would be apologies about missing a weekly post. Everything would be done on schedule and entertain an audience across the country and spectrum of interests. Each week something new, something exciting, would be shared with readers eager to read the next account in his saga. His adventures, challenges, and brilliant ideas would be shared and he would read and be challenged (in a positive manner) by the comments his pensive readers would put forth.

Little did he remember of the beginning of his student teaching, where he so arrogantly entered the classroom with years of experience with children, but little in the classroom. Where it only took a few months for him to be humbled (and a bit frustrated). "This time will be different!" He assured himself.

Fast-forward a few months and where do we find our protagonist? He is finding himself humbled again. Though a full year (a full year!) of student teaching has been completed, he finds the profession to be more time consuming than he had expected. A wonderful group of over thirty children has been assigned to him and he wants to do his best for them, and hopes they give him their best.

Gone are the days where he thought that he would have the time to write at all, let alone time to craft something thought provoking or interesting. No. He would be spending his time working on lessons, learning (and designing) curriculum, responding to emails from parents and students, and doing quite a bit of learning himself.

As the year carried on, and eventually led to a bittersweet end, the thought of writing completely disappeared. But wait! This end would lead to a new beginning. The beginning of a recovery phase!

Yes, he would take the break to recover from his first year's adventures. Perhaps not recover...reflect. Yes, reflect. There were many wonderful things that happened throughout this first year, many lessons learned, many mistakes made, and many stories that deserve reflection and revisiting. His recovery would be that of his blog, from its woeful beginning. Absent would be apologies about missing a weekly post; instead, it would be clearly stated as a potential reality at the beginning of the recovery.

Welcome to the second attempt.

5 comments:

  1. Welcome! I have had a very similar experience through 2 different blogs. You can check out my varied attempts to keep up here:
    mrswroom24.edublogs.org and outsidetheclassroom.edublogs.org
    I look forward to your reflections!

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    1. Sorry, didn't realize my full name wouldn't be on there. It's Diane W. from MERIT - the other Diane!

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  2. Best way to teach writing is to BE a writer yourself! (proud coach, right here!) Yay YOU!

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  3. Reflection is when the learning happens! Good for you. Hope you are relaxing too!

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  4. Yay! MERIT friends are already here supporting you!

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