The year is winding down.

I cannot believe that there are only 15 days left of school. This year has been a huge transition for me and I am just now reflecting on it. I am at a new school and have a new teaching role. Here are my thoughts on all of the changes:

       I love my new school and the idea of k-5 being under one roof. There is something about seeing the progression of students within one building that I really like. The staff here has been very welcoming to me and I hope that I have become part of their RES family. I will always love my FFP family, but I think this move was the right one for me.

       I love my students and love watching them gain confidence and make progress. It has been interesting to learn my new role (from classroom teacher to resource room teacher). I feel like just now in May I am starting to get a grasp on most things. The one thing I have decided that I don’t care for is the paperwork. There is a lot of it and since I am with students most of the day there isn’t any time to get it done.  I am hoping next year to work out a way to get everything done without feeling like I am always behind.

       The last thing that I have realized is that I love and miss being a classroom teacher. I miss the performance of teaching whole group lessons. I miss read alouds. I miss The Very Hungry Caterpillar reader’s theater that I have done for many years as a kindergarten teacher. I miss the idea that I am someone’s teacher and they are my kids (yes I know that I am still a teacher and my students are still my kids, but there is something different about it). I miss science experiments with excited 5 and 6 year olds. I miss teaching kindergarteners to read and seeing how excited they are when they can take a book home to read to their family.

       When I decided to make this change last year I really needed a change. I wanted to be a resource room teacher so I could teach students in small groups with goals that were specific to them. What I didn’t realize is that teaching in a resource room really isn’t the same as being a classroom teacher. I LOVE the students that I work with now and when they make progress I still get teary eyed, but there is something special about having the same students all day long and them being your family.

      

      I think I am really am actor and my classroom is my stage.

I am so thankful to be at RES and to be teaching some amazing students. I look forward to watching them grow and learn even more next year. Maybe if I am creative I can find a way to do some of those things that I am missing. For now I must focus on the 4 IEPs I still have to write plus a long list of other things that have to be done in the next 15 days. I am going to focusing on enjoying every minute of the remainder of the school year with my new RES family and my awesome students!

~Erica