(My fellow ELA teacher, Ms. Black, who has taught alongside me for the last two years, and me showing off our Teach for America certificates.)
One of my favorite songs
is “Welcome to Wherever You Are” by Bon Jovi. I had never heard it until my high school
Baccalaureate. Now I can’t listen
to it without thinking of that night.
The words seemed to fit everything I was feeling so perfectly. Like every worry, every fear, every
hope I had for what was coming was somehow verbalized and I was completely at
ease in that moment.
I
go back to that song every once in a while, just to feel that feeling
again. It’s perfect in those
moments of uncertainty. It’s
perfect for those moments when things are wrapping up, closing down…when
something new and exciting and unknown in lurking around the corner.
I
am having one of those moments this week.
After
two years in the classroom, my time as a Teach for America Corps Member is
drawing to a close. For me though,
it was two years of learning just as much as I taught, if not more. It was a time of serious growth in my
life. I walked into my classroom two
years ago with all the carefree-ness of a college student, and when I close my
classroom door for the last time on Thursday afternoon I will walk away with
only a shadow of that girl.
But,
lucky for me, I’m not done growing yet.
Even though my time in Teach for America is over, I am fortunate enough
to have the opportunity to continue my time in the classroom as a kindergarten
teacher at KIPP VOICE.
Life
changes so quickly and so often that it’s nearly impossible to keep up. I still have a lot to learn; I’m not
going to sit here and say I have it all figured out, but it is said that the
highest form of learning is teaching, so I guess it’s a good thing I’m a
teacher…I guess it’s a good thing that every year is a new beginning, and every
beginning the end of the one before.
You get a lot of chances to get it right that way, and who doesn’t need
a few chances in life?
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