Tran­si­tion­ing to the class­room from admin­is­tra­tive support at the middle and high school was a great move for me. I am so grate­ful to Waverly for giving me this oppor­tu­nity to grow and learn. What kept me from pursu­ing teach­ing since I grad­u­ated college in 2008 was my fear of class­room manage­ment. In the remote learn­ing envi­ron­ment, class­room manage­ment is new to all teach­ers, and we are all learn­ing. It is a process to get to know students remotely and to discover and meet each student’s needs. I’ve been apply­ing what I learn in my creden­tial program, using my intu­ition, and am also reach­ing out to colleagues for their advice and guid­ance. Waverly’s Learn­ing Special­ist, Jennifer Johnson, has been a great resource, as has my teach­ing partner, Brit­tany. I also recently shad­owed one of Oonagh’s kinder­garten class Zoom meet­ings (she’s a magician!). 

Even though I am happy and fulfilled in my new role, I really miss the middle and high school students. It’s funny that I used to chat about Pokémon with some of the high school­ers who play Pokémon Go and that this is also a topic of inter­est for my first and second graders! The Minecraft conver­sa­tions I took part in at the middle and high school have trans­ferred over to my class of first and second graders. It’s also been fun talking with the younger ones about Wild Kratts and Wow in the World–both things my own daugh­ter used to love.

I am happy to be finding ways to add my own areas of exper­tise in my first offi­cial teach­ing role. A new student’s parents were concerned about his Spanish lessons contin­u­ing at Waverly during remote learn­ing. This student is fluent because of his early expo­sure to Spanish through care­givers. So, I volun­teered to teach our class Spanish! We have inte­grated these lessons into our class­room three times a week. When I was at the high school, I used to dialogue in Spanish with a few high school students who wanted to prac­tice their skills. I am happy to get to take the lead in these lessons, and that so many of my students are excited to be learning Spanish.

I look forward to the days ahead and to a year of learn­ing along­side my students!