Life Lessons From Middle School

Spring break is here, and with it comes a little time to reflect on the past six weeks in my life as a teacher. In many ways I no longer feel like "just a sub."  I'm working weekends and even during this break in order to grade and plan appropriately. I put together report cards and was part of the middle school team's conversation on a new grading policy.  I am attending meetings geared toward supporting specific needs of individual students and receiving requests from parents to meet about their child's academic progress.  I am part of ensuring afternoon carpool goes smoothly. I even had a conversation with a seventh grader who was surprised to learn that I am a substitute.

But the teacher came in for a visit with the staff recently, and a visit with the students last week.  No one knows for sure whether or not I will be finishing out this year, as the goal is for the regular teacher to return as soon as possible.  Last week I spent more time than I'd like to admit looking for a teacher's manual I hadn't used yet.  It's been challenging to plan not knowing for sure what these kids read earlier this year, or where they are in their grammar studies. I still don't know all the names of the primary teachers on the upstairs hallway, and might not even be able to pick out the faces of the preschool teachers.

So, I'm trying to take it one week and one unit at a time. Although I have no way to know whether or not the materials I am creating will be used ever again, I can't focus on that as I work to challenge these kids and increase their skill set according to the state standards. This living in the moment and not looking ahead to next school year is new to me. But I know I'm supposed to be focusing on my personal life this year, and allowing my professional life to take a back seat.

The moral that feels like it was written for me.

Hands down, my favorite moral.

In the meantime, I am still having a ton of fun. I had the sixth graders draw comic strips about an Old Testament story from their religion book. Their creativity, humor, and insight are informative and profound. 

The tradition is for the seventh graders to portray a living stations of the cross on Good Friday. The new seventh grade homeroom teacher made it her own this year, and changed up the presentation substantially. I had the privilege of helping them rehearse a couple of times during Holy Week. I promise you there is no enthusiasm quite like seventh grade boy enthusiasm. I am very blessed to be able to be a small part of educating these children.