| By Michael Peacy | 
Michael Peacy is a 6th-grade teacher in Grafton. He began
his teaching career in September of 2004.
| How do you sum up your first year of teaching? When I noticed
that articles were wanted from new teachers, I thought “Wow
that would be fun, write a column about my experiences, trials
and tribulations.” I quickly learned that, like teaching,
this was not going to be as easy as I thought.
A whole year is hard to sum up in a few simple paragraphs, and
I do not want this to go on forever. With that said, I think a
teacher’s first year can be summed up by four simple words;
whoa, um, wow and whew. A strange grouping of words I know, but
as any first year teacher knows, these words do sum it up pretty
well.
The first year is full of surprises; just when you think you
have things figured out, there are more surprises. For example,
my first day was fun but difficult because I had to orientate
my homeroom kids to a new school, new rules, and all the other
stuff. This was interesting because it was just as new to me as
it was to them.
As the day progressed and I started to get the hang of things,
another mega-ton bomb was dropped on me: “Open House Night
Next Week.” I don’t know about you, but those were words
I could have lived without. I had to stand in front parents and
explain what was going on in my classroom this year. The night
turned out OK though, and no one chased me down the street with
a pitchfork.
My first year was filled with many things to do and learn that
they don’t teach in school. I had to sit back and say, “Whoa,
this is going to be a lot of work.”
The second word I would use to describe my first year is “Um.”
There are a lot of decisions that need to be made in your first
year. For me, most of these decisions revolved around opportunities
to become more involved in the school. Not only did I want to
get involved, but I found it exceedingly hard to say no, especially
if there was money offered with the activity. The problem was
that as a first-year teacher planning three subjects with enough
activities to keep 6th graders interested, I quickly found out
that there really are only 24 hours in a day. So I found myself
walking around saying “Um, when do I have time to get any
of this done?”
“Um” also seemed to pop up in response to all those
times I was expected to make quick, unexpected decisions. “Can
you sit in on an IEP?” “Um, sure.” “Do you
want to be on the negotiating committee to represent our school?”
“Um, why not.”
“Wow!” That is all I could think to say the first time
a parent called and told me “Thank you so much for the time
and effort you put into helping our child. We really appreciate
it.” Then there are the times when I was having a blast and
the students were learning everything I wanted them to, that I
just had to reflect and say, “Wow, this is the coolest job
in the world.”
My first year was full of good wows. “Wow, this teaching
staff is awesome.” “Wow, I am glad I got to work with
the retiring teachers for a year before they left our school.”
Of course, the good wows came in by the boatfull, but there was
a share of those other wows too. It hit me hard the first time
I talked to a student and found out what was going on at home.
The moment this happened for me I was at my desk one day during
guidance. The topic was dealing with anger. The guidance counselor
asked, “What makes you angry?” A student raised his
hand and said “I get mad when I go home and try to do my
homework but my stepdad makes me do all the other chores around
the house and watch my sister while he sits on the couch.”
It is at this moment that the reality of the world and this job
came crashing in on me and all I could do was to say “WOW.”
The year was filled with countless whoas, ums and wows but there
was only one “whew.” Once the year was over and I looked
back at what I had accomplished, all I could do was relax with
the other new teachers and say, “Whew, we made it.”
The first year was filled with laughter and joy once I realized
that “Hey, I can do this job.” So at the end of all
this (just like writing this article) I say “Whew, I made
it!” Return to New Teachers page Posted September 6, 2005 |