I can't believe a whole year has gone by so quickly. It was in June of last year that I began my career as a New York City Teaching Fellow, and also started this blog. This year has truly flown by and I am in shock that summer is already upon me. Yet as fast as it has seemed, I have grown so much as a teacher and person that it doesn't seem possible it could have only been one year.
I want to return to an earlier post of mine, which brought up the graph of "Phases of a First-Year Teacher's Attitude Towards Teaching." According to the graph, the period from March through June is a time of steadily increasing attitude, along with reflection and rejuvenation. Now that I have been through the whole roller coaster ride, I have to say I strongly disagree with this characterization. Now, I feel rejuvenated and ready to reflect on my teaching practice, but for the past several weeks I have been more stressed out than ever before. I had no time to really take stock of my first year. My graph of this spring would have lots of ups and downs, rather than a steady climb.
Finally I will have time to relax and do some fun things (although not until after the 3-day conference my school is sending me to). I am ready to participate in this conference because I am now entering the reflection stage. I have been looking forward to the vacation, but now I must look back at the mistakes I made this year and the positive impacts I have had.
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