SOLSC #17 What if I ramble today?

I am participating in the
March 2018 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

It's mid-month in this blogging challenge and I am so aware of how my slicing ideas are so totally bereft. Time, too, is ridiculously precious - this must be the craziest March since I began participating in the challenge seven years ago. No time and no ideas do not a good slice make! Ha! Yesterday's post was written on the fly, a "place holder" simply posted to ensure I was making a post for the day, and then I quickly squeezed in time to comment on three others. (The good news is...no one commented on my post yesterday - ha, my goal of invisibility for that particular post was achieved!!) My hope is that I am absolutely alone in this sad type of blogging, however I suspect that this rudderless, pointless, 'meh' kind of writing hits everyone at some point, and, goodness knows, writing for 31 days in a row shines a real focused light on the deprivation.

Write on.  

Today, Saturday, looms quiet and I thought I'd just ramble onto this page and see what emerges. 

I am thinking about beginning teachers, novice teachers, first year in the classroom public school teachers. Whew. My school is a residency school for a teaching alternative certification program, meaning we have maybe a dozen Teaching Residents working alongside lead teachers; next year, these "emerging teachers" will be the teacher of record in their own classrooms in other schools in the city - i.e., first year public school teachers. I've been working with Teaching Residents for eight years, working alongside them in my preschool classroom. I feel "intellectually" aware and savvy of pretty much all things new early childhood teachers experience.

Two years ago, my son became a Teaching Resident (not at my school!!) and he is now, much to my amazement and delight, a first year teacher in a public school - unbelievably, he is teaching prek-3, just like me.

Some days I just want to pinch myself! How can my life's joy and passion be the same as that of my child's?

It's pretty amazing.

But then, of course, there's the dark side. As I said, I feel "intellectually" aware and savvy of pretty much all things new early childhood teachers experience...now, I am emotionally aware of everything that these teachers experience. I am watching my baby (oh, he would hate that I am writing that - thus, I will not name my son ;-)...I am watching my baby work so very, very hard...practice, practice, try, fail, do-over, try again, practice, success!, strive, dare, practice, practice, mis-step, mis-step, practice, practice, success!, setback, reconsider, practice, practice, practice, triumph!, practice, practice, practice...every day is filled with new stories, many joyful, many stressful, all truly normal in the development of a [dare I say "great"? is it possible to brag about the future?] teacher. Thankfully, he works in a very positive school environment, one that truly cultivates teachers - coaching, mentoring, and leading them into expertise. I see him becoming the reflective, creative, and joyful teacher that I would love children to have...

but, wow, teaching is hard work! 

Teaching as a first year teacher is excruciatingly hard at times. 

Being a parent of a first year teacher is a pretty wild ride.

Honestly, I can feel myself aging this school year!