"Be Optimistic"

Bonjourno!

It's Monday, again, which means it's the beginning of the first full week of class. So far my classes have gone really well, I have come to realize how fortunate I have been to attain the education, life experience and to know the many people I know who have contributed to me being "the kind" of teacher who does well in an urban school. I see many teachers pulling their hair out and it's the 4th day of school. I'm so glad I'm not one of those teachers right now. I'm not saying the year won't be tough, but so far....so good.

I had a cool moment today when I walked into a conference room and overheard one of my colleagues speaking with one of our instructional coaches in the building. One period out of every day, our teachers have to go to their "teacher meetings" called PLC or PDC...which stand for Professional Learning Communities or Professional Development Committee. This is where we use each other as resources, have discussions, we have guest speakers and professionals who come in to provide extra resources, etc. Each PLC has about 10 teachers in it, and while the majority of the teachers in the PLC I am in during 6th hour are awesome, we have a couple of not awesome teachers who are disagreeable, hard to get along with, and generally damaging to the kind of positive environment we are trying to create. Well as you know, I am fairly new to the building. I've been subbing and student teaching here, but I'm still technically a "first year teacher" so the compliment I'm about to tell you about is pretty great....

I walked into the room and heard (I'll call him Mr. Mac) speaking to one of the big girl's on campus, "Mrs. Big"....she is one of the most influential and well respected people in our district and has been for over 20 years. Mr. Mac was saying "well one of the best people we have in this building and in our PLC now is....." and then I walked into the room and he continued, "well this gal, walking into the room right now!". I smiled and said, "well that's quite a compliment!". He said, "well the fact that you care so much is what makes you such a great teacher and honestly half the battle of being successful here is caring as much as you do. For someone so new such as yourself, that is impressive". I thought it was really great that the fact that I do care so much had been noticed and acknowledged and the fact that it's being talked about to others, really important others like Mrs. Big was just.....well....awesome. It makes me happy to know that I am finding my way into this niche and I'm coming into my own, more than I had expected to during my first year of teaching, let alone the first week.

In other news, I learned today that one of my students is named after Steve Urkel.You don't hear that one every day! :)

To wrap it up....it's been a good beginning and I'm still optimistic. And it's 7th hour...the bell is about to ring...and I'm off to enjoy a lovely adult beverage. Cheers!