It's (almost) the end...

of a long week here at induction 2009. At least, I'm finished teaching until Monday. Excited about it, but also have mixed emotions about not being able to teach tomorrow. What I've realized is that the short and sweet and chaotic and crazy 50 minutes I get with my students is time that I've spent recognizing how fulfilling it feels to be in the classroom. finally. Teaching.

It was a humbling experience, and one that I'm so excited to continue.

Things like being able to help a student at the board who is struggling through a problem or sitting one on one with a student about his role model, Reggie Bush, or getting back assessments that were perfect and showed mastery of what I had taught them. But it's not only the students that I've already fallen in love with, it's also my fellow corps members and mentors that are keeping me going.

It's strange, going through this week together. Realizing that all of us get little to no sleep every night and struggle to stand in front of a classroom and command attention while empathizing with their every word to hopefully do some kind of good. The struggle is real, the work is difficult, but the outcome of closing the achievement gap becomes that much more tangible with every minute we get to spend in the classroom learning how to become better teachers. It is here that we 'learn to teach,' and that is a powerful thing to be able to do.