Most of it is because I've been watching Ellery while Christina's started back up at school (saving money on a babysitter FTW!!) and I didn't want to watch something that required a lot of my attention. But part of it I think is because the theme of the show works perfectly for the start of a new school year.
For those who don't know, Scrubs was a sitcom about a young doctor who goes from medical school right into a hospital to serve his internship. He's scared and nervous. He doesn't know little things like where he could find extra bandages. He struggles to apply things he learned in school even though he desperately wants to be a good doctor.
I think the show resonated with people because everyone has that moment where you're thrown into the fire. Where preparation ends and performance begins.
To an extent, every teacher goes through that. Sure, you have student teaching before you get your license, but that is, by and large, a controlled simulation. You're borrowing another teacher's class in order to gain some valuable experience. It's still someone else's classroom, someone else's procedures, and someone else's curriculum.
Your first weeks in a bonafide teaching job you find yourself surrounded by people you don't know, in a building you're unfamiliar with, and in a profession you have no experience in. There's a lot that you don't know. In fact, you feel strikingly similar to how I imagine incoming freshmen feel. Here's a short list of everything I was ignorant of:
- Where's the cafeteria?
- How do I get to the cafeteria from my classroom?
- How do I set up a lunch account?
- How do I request a sub?
- How do I enter grades into my online gradebook?
- Where's the faculty work room?
- What's our lockdown procedure?
- How many tardies result in an office referral?
- How do I RECORD tardies?
- Where do we go in the event of a fire?
- Holy cow, when can I duck out to the bathroom?
- What the heck is Buhler Frolic?
- Can students leave my classroom without a pass?
- Where can I get posters for my class?
- Where can I get T-shirts supporting my school?
- Will I be socially ostracized if I forget to pay my relationship committee/booster club dues?
- How do I record reflections for professional development days?
And keep in mind, none of this has to do with actually teaching, which opens up its own can of worms but can be summed up with the following:
- WHY CAN'T MY CLASS LOOK LIKE THAT OTHER TEACHER'S?
But what I had a hard time making myself understand was that the other teacher usually had at least 10 years more experience than I did. Like it or not, experience counts for a lot in education. Your first year you have so much to learn that it's unreasonable to expect you to be THAT good.
Your first year of teaching is not when you find out if you're a great teacher. But it is when you find out if you're willing to work to become one.
So as my district gears up for the start of its first day of school, I can't help but look back at my first day of my first year and reflect on how far I've come and how far I still feel I have yet to go. A presenter for our district, Joe Coles, showed us a quote. I can't remember the exact words, but the gist of it goes:
"If you think you've made it to the top, you're probably right."And that's when I realize that I'm not the only one who still thinks they need to get better. In fact, the best teachers in our building still think they can get better. And I'm smart enough to still realize that I want to be like them.
A lot changes after your first day. But a lot still stays the same.
