"They Call Me Mr. Etch-a-Sketch"

"Hey everyone! I'm starting a blog to talk about my first year of teaching! I'll have plenty of time to write in between the lesson plans, and the memorizing of songs, and the choir directing, and the arranging, and the paperwork, and the emailing, and the..."

Turns out, I don't have any time on my hands.

I know, I know, I know. It's been almost a whole month since my last post. Those of you that have been waiting, I'm sorry for the lack of updating. However, considering I only know a handful of people who actually read the first post, I feel like the audience (or lack there of) has been managing just fine. Since a lot of you haven't heard from me in a while, I'll try to sum of the past few weeks in just a few short words:

I couldn't be happier.

This job is amazing. From the kids with their Avengers lunchboxes to those who need their shoes tied every 5 minutes, working with these bundles of joy (and of energy) has been more than a delight. It may sound simple: the kids walk in, I put on my show, I make sure they learned something, the kids walk out. But there is so much more to it that I didn't even know or feel until I was the man in charge. Every job has it's drawbacks of course, but the good FAR outweighs the bad.

This year has started in a dead sprint. When you have two schools worth of student names to learn, and two sets of lessons plans to write each week, it's hard to just sit down and relax, let alone share your experiences with the world. Hell, I can barely enjoy some downtime without thinking "I need to learn a new folk song," or "how do I keep the kids from throwing me out the window tomorrow?"
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To be honest, it's all going so much better than I thought it would. I'm learning, forgetting, and relearning names at a record pace. My name has changed from "Mr. Edgeton" to "Mr. Edgingtonian", to "Mr. Etch-a-sketch", to "Mrs. Edgeton", to "Mr. E" for ease and sanity's sake. After a few experiences of late night planning sessions, I'm finding a more efficient way to write lessons (turning off the TV and resisting Facebook visits). Finally, the most shocking realization...

The kids are actually learning and retaining what I'm teaching them.

It blows my mind. I've had time teaching students during my college years, but never got to see the end result. I've been in front of classes making an idiot of myself through silly dancing and speaking almost 2 octaves higher than my original voice, but never got to the real meat of the lesson in one half-hour session. Even during student teaching, I felt as if I couldn't take full credit for their accomplishments because I felt my mentor teacher played bigger roles in their success.

As the runner of the show, I feel like I'm actually doing something. I'm helping students learn about something that they've most-likely never experienced before, and maybe won't again after elementary school. I feel like I'm not just giving them another half hour of 'in one ear, out the other', but actually making a difference. Seeing these students achieve, grow, and learn right in front of me is new. It's different.

It's awesome.
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Now that I've used half my planning time as blog time, I better get back to work if I want to get any sleep tonight. Keep on keepin' on, and until next time...

♩♩for now,

Mr. E