This one time I became a fourth grade teacher the Friday before school started.

I have been trying to find a teaching position for quite some time. I’d hoped to teach at the school I worked at last year as an aide and they had hoped to hire me. Due to circumstances at the district level, teaching at my school didn’t seem like it would actually pan out. When I returned to work as an aide for the year, I was asked if I would be interested in teaching the 4th grade. My interest had been more with special needs children or younger children, but everyone needs to start somewhere.

Teaching the fourth grade has, thus far, been the most exciting and stressful thing I have ever done. I have been told many times that it will never be as stressful as it is the first month in your first year of teaching. This had better be true. I knew teachers worked very hard. I know many teachers. I worked in a school for a year. It turns out that teachers work REALLY REALLY hard. It is a very different type of hard than my previous office life. All the work I do pays off. I work harder on a lesson, and the lesson goes smoother! I grade papers and I don’t have 20 kids asking me how they did. I read the books they are reading and I have conversation topics! I make a cute word wall and they use bigger words!

If you were not previously aware, 9 and 10 year olds are hilarious. They are like really funny. One of my kids relates everything to fishing, another arranges erasers in an army line daily, and there is a gal who will probably write a bestseller one day. These kids are awesome and I feel really blessed that after a year of trying I have a class of my own. These kids actually think I know what is going on with the entire world. That kind of belief in anyone is such a gift. I am one lucky gal.

This year I hope to grow as an educator and a learner. This year I hope to learn and incorporate the art of organization into my life. This year I want to fall in love with my job. This year I want to understand what it means to be 10 again.

More to come when I have more room to breathe. I miss my blog.