senoracmt

Things Feel Normal Again

My first day of year 29 was Monday.

The last two years were the hardest of my entire career. Harder than being a beginning teacher. Harder than having new babies. Harder than the year I was on bedrest with a pregnancy. They were HARD.

When I walked in the door on Monday, I walked in to a year where we were able to set up our rooms without spacing chairs 3 feet apart. I walked into a classroom where I didn’t have to make Zoom rooms that I would have to open daily for groups of quarantined students… and then manage simultaneous live and synchronous classes. And best of all, I walked into a room set up with my reading lounge at the back. My lounge has been closed since we shut down in the spring of 2020.

When students came for their first day on Tuesday, there was actual JOY. They were grinning from ear to ear. Some even jumped up and down with excitement to be back in the room, to be back to normal, to be back in school as they knew it.

I’m not going to lie to you, I was feeling really grim. I had lost some spark over the last couple of years. I am a forever teacher. I plan to be in this room until my retirement day arrives… but it was getting hard to find my usual joy. Let me tell you, I am going in tomorrow for my first Friday of the year and there has been no shortage of joy in my classroom this week. There have been laughs, smiles, and a lot of relief as the year is off to the best start we have had since my seniors were freshmen.

I hope that you all are as lucky as I have been.

I hope that your admin is as wonderful as mine has been. We have been given ample work time in our rooms and a ton of encouragement as we re-find our footing in the new year.

I hope that your colleagues are on your team as you plan and present new material to your students. Nothing is better than having a team that has a unified vision of where they want students’ language proficiency to go!

And most of all, I hope that you have the best students ever! I hope the relationships you build are meaningful and that you make an impact on them and they on you!

Published by senoracmt

I began teaching Spanish in Illinois in 1994. I have taught levels 1-4 in a small rural high school, 8th grade introductory Spanish, Biology 1, and 101 and 102 at the community college level. My Spanish classes are partnered with the community college to offer students 8 semester hours of dual credit on completion of Spanish 4. In 2011 I met Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido and have since co-authored the book "La hija del sastre" with Carol Gaab and authored the novels "La Calaca Alegre", "Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos." "Vector," "48 horas","Bananas", "Sostenible", and "Papálotl" through Fluency Matters. In 2006 I became National Board certified and I have been serving as a mentor both for candidates seeking certification in world languages other than English and a virtual mentor for candidates in all certificate areas. I completed my Masters degree in Spanish education in 2011 and did my research on the use of Understanding by Design to create meaningful cultural units for the language classroom. I am a frequent presenter on this topic, please consider me if you are interested in a workshop on backward design. In 2013 I was named the ICTFL Foreign Language teacher of the year and in 2014 I was selected as CSCTFL's teacher of the year. In November of 2014 I was lucky enough to be one of the five finalists for the ACTFL National Teacher of the Year in San Antonio, TX. What a "Cinderella" experience! You can reach me via email at carrie at somewheretoshare dot com.

3 comments

  1. Great post! I’m glad you’ve had such a joyful first week back. Thanks for the inspo. Love your reading lounge!

    Reply

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