Today was the last day of school for my students. This means that my second year of teaching has come to an end! I wanted to use today’s post as a chance to reflect on what all went down this year, and maybe provide some insight to some of you as well.

I should have known this year was going to be interesting when I started having projector issues right off the bat. I had had some issues with it last year, so I was hopeful they would be fixed. Well, as I was preparing for students to come back, I pulled my projector screen down, and one side of the holders completely fell down. I tried to fix it myself, and that just made it worse. So within the first week of school, I had new brackets installed into my ceiling. My projector issues from last year continued, and at one point, I even brought in my small projector to use.

In November,y school received some smart boards that were supposed to go into the English and Math classrooms to help students out with some new technology. Somehow, something got mixed up, and I ended up with one in my room. (I’m not sure how they think a room with flags on the walls and a bulletin board that literally says “Social Studies” is an English classroom, but I digress.) It took some work, but I figured out how to use it. I could hook up my computer and project that way. So in a sense, it solved my projector issues. But it created another problem. They drilled the smart board directly into my white board. I have literally lost use of a good portion of my white board because of the smart board.

Then there were the students themselves. I love them, and I love what I do, but some days were rough. Because of the pandemic, they’re last “normal” school year was 4th grade, when they were around 10 years old. As a result, even though they are physically 13 years old, they are mentally somewhere between 10 and 13. This caused some behavior issues among my students.

One of those behavior issues was that I had a fight in my classroom. Two girls started going at it and grabbing each other’s hair. I grabbed their arms and wedged them against a wall with my body in between them. This gave them time to calm down and other help to come to pull them apart. They never hurt me or threw any kind of punch. But there was still that issue that I never had last year.

And there were other things as well. I’m not going to go into all of them. But this year was a lot more trying than last year. My things got broken, and my kids were very careless and disrespectful to me at times. I ended up losing one of my assigned computers.

It wasn’t all bad though. There were good moments as well. I made relationships with a lot of students. I got to help students with their issues both in and out of the classroom. I provided my students with the support and belief that they could accomplish their goals. Many of my students told me that they appreciated what I did and that my class was a lot better than they anticipated. As a result, many of my students did well in my class. I had almost half of my students get As, and over half got either an A or a B.

In addition, I had to come to the realization that I had to prioritize both my mental and physical health. I took all of my vacation days during the year, many of which were simply because I needed a break. I ended up taking almost an entire week off right before spring break. As many of you know, I sprained my ankle in high school. I was walking and stepped in a divot, and my ankle turned underneath me. I could not walk very well, and my ankle was swollen and bruised for almost two weeks. That was never something I thought would happen. I was not capable to go to work or teach at all. I barely left my bed because I was in so much pain.

I learned a lot this year. I learned things I never knew about myself, and I learned things about teaching and my classroom. As I go into the summer, I have things I want to work on and improve for next year. I know I can do better and be better. But that doesn’t mean that I necessarily regret the school year. I made a lot of good relationships and connections with my students. I know they le a rned a lot from me, and I’m proud of the work they did.

Perhaps one of the biggest things I learned this year is to never stop giving chances. I had students who all pf a sudden started doing work. They worked hard and showed that they had learned things. As a result, I rewarded their effort. The majority of my students passed my class.

I have things I can work on for sure. I’ve only completed two years after all. But I’m learning and growing. I’m constantly improving and finding new goals to reach for myself. My students surprise me at times, and I’m glad for it. It’s when I become stagnant that I stop enjoying what I do. This year was nothing like last year, and that’s okay. I know what I need to improve and what I’ve got down and (mostly) mastered. I learned a lot from my students, and I hope they learned a lot from me!