Monday, August 10, 2009

The Benefit of Experience

Three days into the school year and it already feels like old times again. If I didn't have a calendar in front of me, I'd think it was late September already. Last week, I felt really rushed to get things together, but today I'm back in my grove. Don't get me wrong, it's not that my day is still not ripe with the usual mishaps and unexpected inconveniences. I am just much better at handling them than I have been in past years.

When I began teaching, many "veterans" told me that my third year would be the "golden one," when everything would come together for me. Well, it didn't. Maybe I'm just a late-bloomer, which is entirely possible given all the evidence from other areas of my life. This is my sixth year, and now I feel like I have the hang of everything.

My husband, who is in his first year of teaching high school, said that he feels awkward because most of the kids know more about the school and the people at the school than he does. That's when the light-bulb went off in my head about why entering my sixth year has made such a difference for me. I also teach at a high school, and it's my fifth year at that school. My first year was at a different location. So, essentially, I spent my last four years learning the ropes as a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior -- yet from a teacher's perspective, of course.

The students who marched across the stage last May were freshmen when I was in my first year at the school. So, when they graduated, they were the last group of students who knew as much about the school as I did. I guess I sort of "graduated" with them into a new era of my teaching career. This year is a commencement for me. Though I hesitate to say I am beginning my "veteran" years of teaching, at least I am no longer a novice. I'm looking forward to seeing what a difference the benefit of experience makes this year and in the years to come.