Revival?

I has obviously been quite a span between my last post and the current one. Although I think it may have been beneficial and necessary. In the interim, much as transpired.

Vacation
First and most enjoyable, I was allowed to experience my first summer break as a teacher. Receiving paychecks and not working simultaneously is underrated. I don't want to overstate that teachers have it good, but you definitely won't hear me complaining about summer break. For the skeptic, teachers earn every penny of those paychecks during summer break. Most people wouldn't do this job if given the opportunity.

During those 10 weeks, I:

- went on an educational conference to Atlanta for a program called High Schools That Work (superfun! - the trip, not the conference).

- went camping with coworkers in upstate New York (also superfun).

- went to San Francisco and Los Angeles for pleasure and to visit family. If I wasn't in NY, I would be living in SF.

- completely disengaged myself from my profession for a healthy amount of time (every teacher should).

- did a ton of yoga.

- mentally healed from the trauma of first year teaching (now my students hesitate to call me anything other than sir;-)

1st Year Down
While chatting with my principal one day, I jokingly said that teachers age like dogs do; For every year they experience, they actually experience seven. In hindsight, this seems like more than a joke. With one year under my belt, I feel like I'm on top of my game. I can handle anything. As teaching is, I am certain that I have far more to experience, but it is nice to feel prepared for it.

I spoke to a coworker today. She's someone I always see, but have never formally met. That is one of the strange things about working in such a huge school (about 2000 students). I have spent an enormous number of hours with people in the same building doing the same thing with the same kids and I don't even know their name. Social quirks aside, we chatted about how you feel as a teacher throughout each year of teaching. She described the first year the same way I would - hellish. She said the second year, there's still a relatively steep learning curve and after that you stop changing as a teacher and the kids stay the same. Interesting thought and even a bit bleak, but it's nice to have someone else's perspective on teaching a few year into the profession.

Being Treated Like a Human Being
This year, there is still one thing of which I am unsure: Are my students actually much more well behaved or have I just improved as a teacher. It feels like the former. Either way I am not complaining.

I've begun to act much colder in the classroom. Last year, I would interact with students very personally, one on one. It is not that I'm opposed to such an interaction, but it's not practical when I am responsible for well over 100 students alone. I sometimes say (a bit cynically) that I want my kids to be afraid of me. I think I mean to say that I want them to be afraid of behaving badly in my classroom. It's actually quite the contrary. If approached politely, I am rather receptive and accommodating, but cross me, and well, you'll be sorry ;-)