Now teaching is starting to become really fun! It literally gets better and better every week. Sure I still find myself in super challenging situations on a daily basis. Sure my heart sinks a little when I hear an entire grade level is at PD and every class I’m working with has a sub that day. And sure I find myself thinking “Ahhh, I could have done that differently!” or “Doh! I should have been better prepared?” or “I really have no idea how to engage this student.” But, in general, for the most part, it’s becoming manageable and really fun!

The focus has started to shift from “What am I doing?” to “What are they doing?” The more I teach, the more confident and comfortable I become with the role of ‘teacher’ or facilitator’ or whatever you want to call it, and the more I can really listen to and observe students and understand what’s going on in class. Now that I’m “off book” so to speak, I can take my eyes off the script and actually look at the audience. It’s cliché, I know, it’s exactly what you’d expect a 2nd / 3rd year teacher to say, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Teaching for me now is more fun than overwhelming and I can only attribute that fact to having some experience - because there is nothing it the world (besides actually just doing it) that can properly prepare you for being an itinerant teacher in a public school system.