I can’t believe I’ve already finished up my second day of my fourth school year! I’m still teaching. I’m in the same room as I was last year, and teaching the same material.

I’ll admit, last year was rough on me. There were a lot of things that went awry, and I struggled. However, I’m thankful that I was able to get to a point where I could actually look forward to the next year (this year).

So now starting off a new year, I’m doing what I can to make better goals for myself. I’m also looking for ways to make my classroom better for my students. I spent a lot of time at the end of last year and over the summer looking at where I went wrong. Then I tried to find ways to make those things better in a way that wasn’t putting too much more work on me.

I want to keep some of the things close to my chest for now until I know if they work. So I probably won’t share too much of what’s going on completely yet.

In general though, I’ve had to do a lot of this figuring out on my own. I started teaching full time right during the pandemic. We were a completely virtual school. Having classroom management wasn’t necessarily a problem. We switched to a hybrid learning environment in the spring of my first year, and I only had like 5 or 6 students in a room at a time. There’s not really a need for classroom management at that point. My second year, everyone still had to wear masks and mostly stayed to themselves. I had issues here and there for sure, but the majority of my students were still able to learn. Last year I really felt alone about being able to manage my classroom. I had received very minimal help, and now students were used to being in the classroom and around each other. Someone finally caught on that I was struggling, and I was able to get help. I was able to implement some routines, but still others were wasted because it was too late in the year by the time I learned them.

This year for me is basically starting fresh. I have the time to implement those routines and procedures from the onset with corrections as needed. I have ways to reward both individual students and the class as a whole. I have charts posted in both English and Spanish and am working to make a more inclusive classroom to catch and assist more students.

My school (really the district I teach in) has a new curriculum for social studies. I was actually part of the committee to choose the textbook because i wanted to make sure that the history i taught wasn’t left out of the mix. This is exciting to me because this is the first year I’ve had a textbook from which to pull reading and activities. The past three years I’ve had to find my own activities and resources from whatever sources I could manage. And I’m also thankful that I don’t have to use the textbook for everything. After three years, I have a plethora of resources and activities. Some are really great, and some less so. The textbook also comes with a workbook that has sections to practice the lesson vocabulary. I was looking to use guided notes anyway, and I think this will really be helpful for me.

I have a lot of hope for this year. I’m encouraged for how things are going to work out. This is one of the first years where I’m actually starting to feel experienced at my job. Starting this year was really personal to me because I’ve had at least two friends leave the teaching profession and move onto something else (and they started around the same time I did). I know that teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and I’m working hard to avoid becoming just another statistic. But the more I teach, the more hope I have to continue on this path for a while. I’ll definitely keep you posted on how the year goes, but I’m excited (and already worn out) for the things that bother myself and my students will accomplish.